The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Hamilton House and Mews in Catfield, Norfolk that it must make improvements to protect the safety and welfare of people living there.
CQC carried out an unannounced inspection at the home in July and August this year and identified a number of areas where improvements were required. During their inspection, CQC found that the home, operated by Prime Life Limited, was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led.
Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall, Hamilton House & Mews has been rated as Inadequate and has been placed into special measures.
Hamilton House and Mews provides residential care for up to 39 adults with mental health needs.
A full report from the inspection has been published on the CQC website.
At this inspection the provider was in breach of eight regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
The report identifies a number of areas in which improvements are required, including:
- There was insufficient staff to make sure the needs of people living at the home could be appropriately and safely met.
- The provider could not demonstrate that appropriate recruitment checks had been carried out on staff before they started work at the home.
- Despite improvements, people were still not protected against the risks associated with unsafe use and management of medicines.
- Risk management was poor, care plans lacked detail on how to mitigate any risks and gave very limited information to help guide staff as to the needs of the person receiving care.
- Staff were not supported effectively through adequate training to care for people safely and lacked knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, this meant people were not kept safe from inappropriate care.
- People were not always treated with respect and were not supported to make independent choices.
- There were no effective systems in place to monitor the quality of service being provided.
Sue Howard, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care said:
“It is essential that Hamilton House and Mews takes action to address the concerns we identified at this inspection. The provider has a responsibility to ensure that people living at the home are safe and protected from the risk of harm. All people living there have a right to receive care which is of a high quality, compassionate and safe.
“When we are faced with a residential or nursing home failing their residents, our first instinct is to make sure the service improves.
“Since the inspection we have been working closely with the local authority to ensure that residents are not at risk and we have placed this service in special measures.”
Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Mark Humphreys on 0191 233 3519 or 07881656012.
Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here. Please note: the press office is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters. For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.
Find out more
Read our reports about Hamilton House and Mews.