CQC tells Shelford Lodge Care Home improvements are needed

24 February 2011

Care home not meeting one essential standard.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Shelford Lodge Care Home that the care it provides it is failing to meet essential standards of safety and quality people should be able to expect.

The regulator has told Shelford Lodge where it needs to improve and inspectors will follow up to ensure that improvements are made.

Shelford Lodge, owned by Shelford Lodge Limited, is based in Cambridgeshire. It provides residential accommodation to older people, including those suffering from dementia.

CQC inspectors visited the home in response to concerns which it had received. The inspection team reviewed all the information held about this provider and carried out a visit in January 2011.

Inspectors were particularly concerned with stained carpets, unclean mirrors, unclean windows and food in freezers which was not stored in a hygienic manner.

The report also noted that the home did not have:

• basic measures in place to ensure that standards of cleanliness and hygiene are regularly audited.
• adequate guidelines and policies in place to help staff promote good infection control and prevention control.

Shelford Lodge has submitted an action plan to CQC, outlining how it will address the concerns in order to meet the standards. Inspectors will return to the care home unannounced to check whether the improvements have been made and to decide whether to initiate formal enforcement action.

CQC East region director Frances Carey said: “Shelford Lodge is not meeting essential standards that ensure that people living at the home are protected from the risk of infection."

"We will follow up to ensure that improvements are made.”

Ends

For further information please contact Nicola Stewart on 0121 600 5344 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors

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.