Improve or face enforcement action, CQC tells Aberry House

10 March 2011

A Leicestershire care home is failing to meet 10 essential standards.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Aberry House that if it does not take immediate steps to improve, the regulator could take enforcement action.

Following visits on 10 and 11 January 2011, CQC inspectors found that the care provided is falling far short of the essential standards of quality and safety people should be able to expect from a care home.

Aberry House is owned by Magnum Care Limited which is based in Leicester. It provides residential accommodation to older people.

CQC has told Magnum Care Ltd that it will be monitoring Aberry House closely and will hold it to account if improvements are not made swiftly. The regulator will not hesitate to take enforcement action to ensure the safety of people who use services, staff and the public.

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.

The CQC report, which is published today, highlights four major main areas of concern:

• People should be cared for in a clean environment and protected from the risk of infection
  Inspectors found that people in the home were are not fully protected against the spread of infection.
• People should be cared for in safe and accessible surroundings that support their health and welfare
  The report concludes that people are not always cared for in safe premises; the maintenance of the environment such broken locks on toliet doors do not promote people's privacy and dignity.
• Staff should be properly trained and supervised, and have the chance to develop and improve their skills
  Inspectors said that people who use the services health and welfare is not fully protected, due to lack of a comprehensive and co-ordinated approach to meeting staff training needs.
• People should have their complaints listened to and acted on properly
  People at Aberry House do not have sufficient assurance that their comments and complaints are listened to and acted upon.

CQC Regional Director Andrea Gordon said: “We have been pressing Magnum Care to improve the care offered at Aberry House, but standards of care are still not good enough. We will monitor them closely and won’t hesitate to use our enforcement powers to ensure the safety of people who use these services if we need to.

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

Aberry House is a residential home providing care and accommodation for up to 38 older people. The home is situated in Lutterworth Road in the city of Leicester.