Care Quality Commission tells North Somerset care home to improve services

19 August 2011

The owners of a care home at Congresbury in North Somerset have been told they must take action to ensure that people are protected from unsafe or inappropriate care.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that the Leonard Elms care home was failing to meet six of the essential standards of quality and safety. The home in Brinsea Road, Congresbury, provides nursing care for older people, some with dementia.

The report, published on the CQC website, identifies concerns with care and welfare of residents, inadequate nutrition, staffing levels, notification of incidents and the home's own systems to monitor the quality of its services. Another concern was that the home had been without a registered manager since December 2010.

CQC has given the registered provider, Mr Paul Bliss, seven days to produce plans showing how he intends to achieve compliance. Providers of care services have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting the essential standards of quality and safety.

The CQC review followed concerns which were raised during a recent safeguarding investigation. Since then CQC has been working with North Somerset Council, NHS North Somerset and the provider to ensure the continuing welfare of residents.

Inspectors visited the home on 13 June to observe how people were being cared for. The main areas of concern can be found below.

Nutrition

Inspectors said that some people were not given the help they needed to eat or drink. There was little support to help them and meals were cleared away uneaten. Care plans for nutrition were not adequate for people who had lost weight or were at risk of losing weight.

Staffing

People were not being cared for by sufficient numbers of skilled staff to meet their health and welfare needs at all times. On the upper floor, two care assistants did not notice people’s needs and were too busy to give people the help they needed to eat properly.

Notifications

Inspectors looked at accident records in the home and found that one person had been involved in several incidents and on one occasion this had led to an injury. This had not been notified to the Commission as required.

Ian Biggs, Regional Director of CQC in the South West, said that inspectors would now keep the care home under review while improvements were made.

He said: "Until recently, Leonard Elms care home did not have a permanent manager and the nurses covering as deputy managers were finding it difficult to manage both the home and lead the nursing care.

“Insufficient staffing levels may also explain why people haven't been getting the help they need to eat and drink properly. Whilst our inspectors were there, five people were given breakfast in their rooms but this was later taken away by staff virtually uneaten. At no time did we see staff going back to those people to see how they were doing or to spend any length of time in prompting and supervising them to eat their food, even though care plans had identified them as people who required assistance with eating.

"Since the date of our inspection, the provider has supplied us with information which sets out the actions being taken to address the concerns raised in this report and the home has taken on a new manager, although the manager has not yet applied to be registered with us.

"Our inspectors will return in the near future and if we find that the home is not making progress we will consider further action.”

Ends

For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors