The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken action to protect people at Sandrock Nursing Home in Birkenhead, following an inspection in April that sees it rated as inadequate and placed into special measures.
Sandrock Nursing Home, in Birkenhead, Merseyside, was run by Prasur Investments Limited and provides personal and nursing care for up to 28 people.
The inspection was carried out to follow up on improvements CQC told the home to make at their previous inspection.
Following the inspection, the areas of safe and well-led were re-rated as inadequate. The overall rating of inadequate remains the same. The areas of responsive, caring, and effective were not looked at as part of this inspection and retain their previous ratings of good.
CQC would have responded to the concerns found at inspection with further regulatory action, however, during the inspection process Prasur Investments Limited took the decision to cancel its registration and have sold the service to Frank Care Ltd. The new provider Frank Care Ltd is hoping to take over the service with minimum disruption for people living there. CQC will continue to closely monitor the service as the provider changes over.
Inspectors found:
- There was no registered manager in post at the home. Staff could not confirm who was managing the service day-to-day, which led to uncertainty for staff as well as the people living there and their loved ones.
- Someone introduced to inspectors as the administrator was named in a staff structure chart as the matron with lead responsibilities over medicines, among other areas. The service should have carried out recruitment checks prior to their employment as this staff member had received a striking off order by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. CQC found strong evidence this person was taking a lead role in all aspects of the service.
- The service had not addressed safety issues within the home or its outside areas which had been raised by CQC at previous inspections.
- People living at the home were at risk of abuse because the service wasn’t always following safeguarding processes.
- Medicines weren’t being managed safely. Staff did not have an annual review of their skills and competency to administer medicines, there was no evidence of a medicines policy in place, and there were ineffective systems in place to ensure people received their medicines when they needed them.
However, there were enough staff and inspectors witnessed positive interactions which showed that staff were familiar with people’s care needs and preferences.