The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Polefield Nursing Home that they must make improvements to protect the safety and welfare of people they care for.
The home was last inspected in October 2016 where the service was rated overall as 'Requires Improvement, this inspection was carried out to establish whether improvements had been made since the October inspection.
At the time of the inspection the home did not have a registered manager, which meant the service was failing to comply with the requirements of their registration. The home was rated as inadequate for safety, effectiveness and well-led and requires improvement for caring and responsiveness. Overall the service has been rated as inadequate.
The full report from the inspection can be found on our website.
Some of the findings from the latest inspection included:
At this inspection in April 2017, CQC identified five breaches regulations, principally in relation to safe care and treatment, meeting nutritional and hydration needs, safeguarding people from abuse, good governance and staffing.
Some people had been assessed as being at risk from an 'unsafe swallow' and were given foods by staff which could cause them to choke or aspirate. Some of these had been listed as foods to avoid when they had been referred to SALT (Speech and Language Therapy). In addition, medication was not always given to people safely and we found instances where people had not received their medicines as prescribed.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:
“At our last inspection we found numerous breaches of regulations and rated the service as Requires Improvement. It is very disappointing to learn that the service has deteriorated as we would have expected to see an improvement in quality. It is our expectation that providers should use our inspection reports to help address the problems and rectify them as a matter of urgency."
“It is a matter of concern that risks, which could be easily mitigated, were not being addressed. For example, inspectors noted that people were not always protected from the risk of losing weight and we identified two people whose food was not being fortified with additional calories as advised by the dietician. There were also concerns with the recording of weekly weights and people being offered snacks in between meals."
“At two previous inspections in April and October 2016, we identified gaps in staff training in areas such as fire safety, infection control and safeguarding. We found this to be a continuing area of concern. Properly trained staff are essential to the safe and effective operation of a service, the fact that training needs had still not been addressed is unacceptable."
“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care, consequently this service has been placed in special measures. We have been working with local commissioners, including Manchester City Council, to ensure that people receiving services at Polefield Nursing Home, are not at undue risk."
“If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe, so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement policy to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This could mean cancelling their registration or varying the terms of their registration.”
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It is a matter of concern that risks, which could be easily mitigated, were not being addressed.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North