CQC demands action to improve services at Hove care home

4 April 2011

Caburn House failing to meet 15 essential standards.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told a Hove care home that it is failing to meet 15 essential standards in quality and safety, and must take swift action to address major concerns in three key areas of care.

Following an inspection of Caburn House care home, CQC inspectors found that care is falling far short of the essential standards of quality and safety people should be able to expect.

Caburn House is a care home registered to provide personal care for 28 older persons, some of whom may have dementia.

CQC reviewed all the information it holds about this provider and carried out a visit in January 2011. It observed how people were being cared for, talked to people who use services, talked to staff, checked the provider’s records, and looked at records of service users.

CQC found that Caburn House was not meeting 15 essential standards and had major concerns in three areas:

• Safety and suitability of premises: There were fire safety shortfalls, a lack of deep cleaning programmes and continuous maintenance and repairs leads us to conclude that the premises are not safe for people living in the home.
• Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision: People were at risk of poor nutrition and dehydration due to poor food stocks and menu planning at the home. Residents were not provided with realistic menus, nor offered a choice of food. Neither was it clear how their diverse needs were being met as a result of the lack of adequate arrangements in place.
• Financial position: There was limited petty cash, and a failure to pay invoices and action fire safety issues which directly affected  the quality of care for people. The lack of a working payphone left service users unable to contact family and friends easily. The provider failed to ensure that the quality monitoring process included the prompt payment of invoices.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, the Care Quality Commission has a number of enforcement powers that enable it to act swiftly when services are failing people. These include issuing warning notices, restricting the services that a provider can offer or the way it is provided; or, in the most serious cases, suspending or cancelling a service. CQC can also issue financial penalty notices and cautions or prosecute the provider for failing to meet essential standards. 

CQC Regional Director for the South East, Roxy Boyce, said: “The care at Caburn House has fallen far short of the standards people have a right to expect.

“The law says these are the standards that everyone should be able to expect when they receive care. Providers have a duty to ensure they are compliant – or face the consequences. 

“Our inspectors will return to Caburn House shortly, and if we find that the home is not making progress we won’t hesitate to take enforcement action on behalf of the people who live there.”

CQC has now given the provider 14 days to produce plans to show how it intends to achieve compliance. By law, providers of care services have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting the essential standards of quality and safety. We will continue to monitor progress and we will check to make sure that the improvements have been made.

Ends

For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9239 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors