The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told the providers of Wilberforce Healthcare, Hull that they must make improvements to protect the safety and welfare of people they care for.
Wilberforce Healthcare, provide care to people living in the community who are over the age of 18 who may have dementia care needs, a learning disability, mental health needs or a physical disability in the Hull area.
CQC carried out its most recent inspection in October. Inspectors found that the care being provided, was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led.
Some of the findings from the latest inspection included:
The service could not deploy sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of the people who used the service. The registered provider could not deliver commissioned care to 17 people totalling 102 care calls between 8 and 9 October 2016.
The registered provider had to permanently hand back care packages for 21 people to the local authority commissioners, Kingston upon Hull City Council as they did not have enough staff meet their needs. Consequently, people who used the service were exposed to the risk of abuse by way of neglect because the registered provider failed to ensure the service could deploy sufficient numbers of staff to meet their assessed needs.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:
“This is a very worrying report. It is evident people were not receiving safe care and treatment. The call monitoring records we reviewed provided evidence that staff consistently failed to stay for the full duration of the care call. People who had been assessed as requiring the support of staff for 30 minutes had their care delivered in less than four minutes. This is wholly unacceptable.
“We were not assured that the service was using appropriate employment methods. One member of staff had been employed without a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check being undertaken and another member of staff's DBS check showed they had been charged with criminal offences that could place people at risk.
“When we visited this service it was under intense pressure. When we sought clarification on current staffing levels we were told that of the 45 staff employed to deliver care and support in the community, 15 had recently resigned, seven were on holiday and four on sick leave.
“This represents a real risk to people using the service. They cannot be guaranteed continuous quality service provision. People who used the service were exposed to the risk of neglect and suffered from neglectful practices because the organisation failed to deliver care at agreed times and support staff to stay for the allotted amount of time.
“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures.
“We have been working with local commissioners to ensure that people receiving services from Wilberforce Healthcare, Hull are not at undue risk. We will continue to monitor this provider. CQC will consider the appropriate regulatory response to resolve the problems found.”
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Manager David Fryer on 07754 438750.
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