A KIDDERMINSTER care home has been placed in special measures after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found evidence indicating people were ‘at risk of harm.’
The CQC has published a damning report against Nightingale Court Care Home following recent visits.
At the time of its inspection, there were 31 people living at the service, some of whom were living with dementia.
The inspection was unannounced, and the report said it was in response to concerns raised about the service.
Concerns, according to the report, were regarding governance of the service, management of medicines, record keeping and management of accidents and incidents.
During the inspection, the report claims, evidence was found indicating people were at risk of harm due to these issues, with three breaches of legal regulations identified related to the need for consent, safe care and treatment and good governance.
Three unannounced visits were carried out in September by four inspectors and one medicines inspector.
The report said the provider failed to ensure appropriate systems were in place to manage medicines safely.
Inspectors also reported management had failed to recognise where safeguarding incidents had occurred and, as a result, had not reported these appropriately to the relevant authorities.
They added where accidents and incidents had taken place, and action was taken at the time, learning from these was not embedded robustly to help reduce future incidents.
The report added: “People did not always have appropriate care plans to guide safe practice. Some records related to people’s care were missing or had significant gaps.
“People were not always safeguarded from abuse, and we found there was a lack of documentation in place to support consent.
“We found there was a closed culture within the service.
“This service is being placed in special measures.
“The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements.
“We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to some of the concerns found at this inspection.
“Although we observed multiple positive interactions between staff and people, inspectors said they noticed people were not always offered choices, and we reported our concerns due to poor moving and handling techniques used by staff.”
During the inspection, we interviewed six people’s relatives, with the report claiming it received mixed feedback regarding the care and support provided to people.
The report said: “While some relatives were happy about the care and the governance of the service, other people’s relatives raised their concerns around the management of accidents and incidents, unexplained bruising and the management not always informing them about outcomes of safeguarding concerns.”
The safety and well-led sections were rated as ‘inadequate’, while the caring section was rated as ‘requires improvement’.
On the other two criteria, effective and responsive, the care home is rated as good, although these were not reassessed in the latest report.
The Standard contacted the Care Home, but they said they did not wish to comment at this time.
