An unannounced focused inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) too place at Holmdale House care home in Havenstreet on on 24 February 2015.
The inspection was held because “the service was not meeting legal requirements”. The findings have been published today and reveal the inspectors found the care home to be ‘Inadequate’.
How the ‘Inadequate’ rating was reached
The report states
- Medicines were not managed correctly. Where people were unable to say if they had pain there was no system or procedures to identify pain or ensure pain relief medicine was administered. Therefore people did not receive pain relief medicine when they require it.
- Medication audits had not identified the failure to administer topical creams as prescribed or the incorrect use of topical creams.
- Essential safety precautions were not followed in respect of the storage of oxygen. People were at risk due to these failings.
- People were not protected from the risk of abuse and neglect.
- Staff did not recognise some aspects of their care practises as being abusive.
- People were at risk of developing injuries which may have been preventable and action was not taken promptly to ensure people received correct safe care.
- Healthcare advice was not always sought or followed when required.
- Care records did not always show when medical advice had been sought or what the advice or guidance from medical practitioners had been.
- Care and support was not planned or delivered in a way that met people’s individual needs or responded to their changing needs.
- People’s legal rights were not ensured.
- The principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 were not being followed and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) not implemented effectively.
- People’s wishes in respect of how they should be cared for were either not known or ignored.
- Staff did not receive the training they required to give them the necessary skills to meet people’s needs safely.
- We found the provider had failed to take adequate action and are planning further enforcement action.
People are entitled to high quality care
Adrian Hughes, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care, said:
“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care. We assess services against five key questions – Is the service caring? Is the service effective? Is the service safe? Is the service well led? Is the service responsive? – and rate each question and the service overall. Where we find a service meets our characteristics of good or outstanding then we will rate accordingly.
“If we find that a service requires improvement, we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue. We will share our findings with local commissioners, and we will return in due course to check that they have made the required improvements.
“Whenever we find a service to be Inadequate, we will consider taking further action on behalf of the people who use the service. Providers of those services should take the publication of the inadequate rating as a signal that immediate action is required to improve the service.”
The report
Full details can be found in the report below.
