Romford care service rated Inadequate by CQC

A Romford care service has been rated as Inadequate overall by the Care Quality Commission - and placed into special measures.

Affinia Healthcare in Eastern Road, in the London Borough of Havering, was rated Inadequate for being safe and well-led. It was rated Requires Improvement for being effective, caring and responsive, following the inspection in October 2017.

Affinia Healthcare is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes and some in supported living. At the time of CQC’s inspection there were 55 people using the service, nine of which were receiving personal care in a supported living environment.

Inspectors found that risks were not always effectively assessed, reviewed or managed in order to protect people from harm. Safeguarding processes, although in place, were not always followed.

Medicines were not always administered as prescribed. CQC found several instances where medicine administration records had not been completed appropriately. Inspectors observed medicine record transcribing errors, which resulted in people receiving the wrong amount of medicine.

There were shortfalls in the systems in place to monitor and ensure staff attended all relevant training. There were inadequate care planning systems, which did not ensure people's needs were accurately documented.

There were breaches of information governance, where staff could access patient records when there was no requirement for them to do so. People's records were not reviewed in a timely manner and did not reflect an accurate account of care delivered. The provider had failed to ensure an open and transparent culture.

For adult social care services the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when CQC inspect it next and it is no longer rated as Inadequate for any of CQC’s five key questions - it will no longer be in special measures.

Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said:

“We found significant shortfalls in the way the service was being led. Furthermore people reported a closed culture where challenging bad practices was not addressed and incidents were not always taken seriously.”

You can read the report in full on our website.

Ends

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