North Yorkshire nursing home is rated as Inadequate by CQC

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Ackworth House Nursing Home in Filey, North Yorkshire that it must make improvements or face enforcement action.

During an unannounced inspection in August, inspectors found that the home, was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led. A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website this week.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall, Ackworth House Nursing Home has been rated as Inadequate.

The report identifies a number of areas in which improvements are required:

• People’s needs had not been taken into account when deciding on appropriate staffing levels and staff rotas revealed occasions when staff numbers had been below that stated as required by the provider.
• Some people living at the service had not been consulted or assessed as to whether they had the mental capacity to make decisions regarding their care. Other who did not have mental capacity were not leaving the premises but it was unclear whether or not they were being deprived of their liberty lawfully as this had not been assessed by the local authority
• Inspectors found that the administration of medicines was poorly managed. Medicines that had been administered to people were not always recorded properly and it was not clear that they were always receiving their medicines as prescribed.
• People were not protected from the risk of infection because people were not cared for in a clean, hygienic environment.
• The premises had not been suitably adapted to assist those people living with dementia to get around the home.
• The provider did not have an effective system in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received and leadership was inconsistent and weak.
• There were limited activities for people living at the home and a risk of social isolation for some people.

CQC is currently considering the need for further regulatory action against Ackworth House Limited and will report in due course on any action they do decide to take.

Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North said:

“We have told Ackworth House Limited that they must take swift action to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people living at the home.

“The provider is failing to meet the basic needs and individual choices of the people living at the home and it is unacceptable that the service has failed to make progress since our previous visit in January 2014

“The people for whom they are providing a service are entitled to services which are safe, effective, caring, well led, and responsive to their needs.

“We will continue to monitor the home’s progress to see if improvements are being made and we will return to check that the provider has made all the changes required to ensure people are safe and well cared for.

“If we find that this is not the case we will consider using our legal powers further to protect the people who live here.”

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 media enquiries, call the CQC press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143. For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.