A Dumbarton care home has been rated as ‘weak’ in a critical report, with one room described as smelling “strongly of urine and being unpleasant to be in.”
The Care Inspectorate made an unannounced visit to Strathleven Care Home between September 7 and 15.
Inspectors said residents “were not always experiencing compassion, dignity and respect in their interactions with staff” and that there were “limited opportunities for engagement in the community.”
The report added: “We saw people sitting for extended periods in slumped positions without any support from staff”.
The manager of the care home said an urgent action plan has been developed and implemented.
Strathleven was assessed across three outcomes: How well they supported people’s wellbeing, the strength of their leadership and how good their staff team was.
All areas were scored out of six, with one deemed unsatisfactory and six rated as excellent. Each area recorded a score of two, classified as ‘weak’ by the body.
Assessing how effectively the wellbeing of residents was supported, inspectors said they “found significant weaknesses in the service that adversely affected people’s experiences and outweighed the strengths in this area.”
They highlight concerns around “abrupt” staff interactions with residents, adding “Staff practice revolved around routine tasks and did not reflect people’s preferences.
“People’s views were not reflected in staff practice. For example, we observed that people who preferred to have a lie-in, in the morning were seen up and dressed early in the morning when we visited.
“People who enjoyed music were left for long periods without any stimulation and people with sensory impairments were not given adequate stimulation.
“This meant that people were not always experiencing compassion, dignity and respect in their interactions with staff.”
Inspectors continued by saying that there was “a lack of emphasis on getting people socially active”.
A small number of group activities were planned each day, with the inspectors concerned about the environment of one of the rooms used for these.
The report explained: “We observed a small room that we were told was being used by the activity coordinator to provide individual pamper sessions.
“When we visited this room it smelled strongly of urine and was unpleasant to be in.”
Despite the low score, however, residents were mainly positive about their experiences and the staff – with family members commenting “the staff are lovely with dad” and “the food’s good, it’s all homemade.”
Investigating the strength of leadership, inspectors found that there was no evaluation of people’s experiences living in the home, adding that staff practice was unmonitored and “without these checks, we could not be sure that staff had the appropriate skills and knowledge to deliver good quality care to people.”
Focusing on staff at the home, the inspectors believed an increased workload was impacting the quality of care. It explains: “At the time of inspection the service was not operating at full capacity as it had vacancies for carers. This means that staff were having to cover extra shifts and this could lead to staff becoming less effective in their role due to tiredness.
“We observed that some staff were better at interacting with residents than others and this meant that there was a lack of consistency in good quality care being delivered to people.”
Strathleven Care Home now has until December 23 to put in place a series of required changes, including introducing a varied programme of meaningful activities for residents, ensuring the home is clear of avoidable smells and that more is done to encourage residents to take part in activities. The report also tasks bosses to maintain a robust quality assurance scheme, and ensure that the skills mix, number and deployment of staff meets the needs of people in the home’s care.
Ainsley Clark, manager of the home, said: “We can confirm that an action plan has been developed and implemented as a matter of urgency. We are working closely with the HSCP and have every confidence that our action plan will meet the CI requirements.
“Maintaining the best care and support for our service users will always be of paramount importance, all feedback from the CI has been received positively.”
