1 March 2012
Park Homes UK Ltd, the proprietor of the Hazel Bank Care Home, is not meeting four of the government’s essential standards of quality and safety.
A Care Quality Commission inspection on the 26 January 2012 found that the home in Daisy Hill, Bradford was not meeting four of the of the sixteen essential quality and safety requirements.
Providers of care services have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting all the essential standards of quality and safety.
The resultant CQC report, published on our website, highlights major concerns in the following four areas:
Respecting and involving people who use services
We looked at a number of care plans and could find no evidence of people or their representatives being involved in planning their care. People are not involved in their ongoing care and support and some practices in the home show a lack of respect for people perhaps need an example of how the home shows a lack of respect.
Care and welfare of people who use services
When we looked at people’s care plans, we were not satisfied that personal needs were being met. In one instance a service user had been provided with an inappropriate mattress and in another medication was not being administered properly. In another case a service users nutritional needs were not being met. When we asked staff if they read people's care plans they told us that they try to but most of the time they are too busy delivering direct care. People are therefore at risk of not receiving safe and appropriate care.
Safeguarding people who use services from abuse
We spoke to staff who told us that they had received safeguarding training, however, when we gave scenarios of things that could happen in the home they were vague about the action they would take. No one identified that the lack of staff was a safeguarding issue. Following our visit we made referrals to the safeguarding team in Bradford in relation to three people's specific needs and a whole service referral because we did not think there were enough staff on duty to meet people's needs.
People who use services should be safe and their health and welfare needs are met by sufficient numbers of appropriate staff.
We talked to the staff and asked them if there were enough staff on duty to meet people's needs. Staff told us that they did not think there were. We spoke to one visitor who told us they felt the staffing levels were too low and that their relative has to wait longer than they would like for staff to assist them. There are not enough staff on duty to meet people's needs.
CQC Regional Director for the Yorkshire and Humberside region, Jo Dent, said: “The care that has been supplied by this service has fallen far short of the standards people have a right to expect. It is clear that improvements need to be made.
“The provider, Park Homes UK Ltd, must send CQC a report that says what action they are going to take to achieve compliance with these essential standards.
“The law says these are the standards that everyone should be able to expect when they receive care. Providers have a duty to ensure they are compliant – or face the consequences.”
Ends
For media enquires, please contact the CQC regional communications team; David Fryer on 07901 514220 or Kirstin Hannaford 0191 233 3629 or the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.
Notes to editors
If the required improvements are not made, CQC has a range of enforcement powers which include restricting the services that a provider can offer, 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. Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.
Read the reports
Read the reports from our checks on standards at Hazel Bank Care Home.