25 January 2012
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told the owners of Westgate House in Northamptonshire that they must make improvements to comply with the essential standards of quality and safety.
Inspectors have found that the home on Eastcote Road, Northampton, has failed to protect the safety and welfare of its residents.
A report published by CQC says that the provider, Westgate House Limited, was not meeting eight of the ten essential standards inspectors looked at and in three of these areas major concerns were identified.
Providers of care services have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting all essential standards of quality and safety.
The visit to Westgate House, which provides accommodation and nursing care took place in November 2011 as part of CQC’s routine programme of inspections. When inspectors visited the home they found the care provided was falling short of standards people should be able to expect and improvements were needed. Areas of major concern included:
Care and welfare of people who use services
Although people told us they were happy with the care they received, inspectors found evidence that care plans contained only basic information about people's needs and did not give details about how staff needed to support people. Poor care planning meant that people using the service were at risk of inconsistent and unsafe care.
Safeguarding people who use services from abuse
Several care and nursing staff had not received any safeguarding training on the day of the inspection. However, since the visit the provider has assured CQC that the majority of care and nursing staff have received training in safeguarding vulnerable people and that the remaining staff will be trained by the end of January.
Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision
Quality monitoring systems were not sufficiently effective to protect people from the risk of unsafe or inappropriate care. Inspectors looked at a medication audit completed by someone from Westgate House Limited.
They saw that it included checks on the recording of medication but did not include checking that the amount of medication held in the home balanced with the recordings. During the inspection CQC highlighted several examples of poor and unsafe care as detailed in this report. These concerns had not been identified through the quality assurance systems used at Westgate House.
Andrea Gordon, Deputy Director of Operations (Central Region), said: “The failings at Westgate House are a real concern and improvements need to be made.
“The provider needs to ensure its care plans are up to date and contain the right information to guide staff so that people receive the support they need. It also needs to ensure it has robust systems in place to check its service provision and that the appropriate numbers of staff are available to care for people at the home.”
During their visit, inspectors also identified moderate concerns in relation to respecting and involving people who use services, consent to care and treatment and management of medicines. They had minor concerns about the notification of other incidents and cleanliness and infection control.
Andrea Gordon added: “CQC has been working closely with Northamptonshire County Council to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the residents and we have told the provider where they need to improve.
“Where improvements are not made we have a range of enforcement powers that can be used, including prosecution, closure or restriction of services.”
CQC has received assurance from the provider that the issues identified in the inspection report were already being addressed and improvements have been made.
Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.
Ends
For further information please contact Helen Gildersleeve, regional communications officer, on 0191 233 3379. The CQC press office is also available on 0207 448 9401 or out-of-hours on 07917 232 143.
Notes to editors
Read the reports
Read the reports from our checks on standards at Westgate House.