The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken action to protect people living at Mountdale Nursing Home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and rated the service inadequate following an inspection in November.
Mountdale Nursing Home, run by Mountdale Limited, is a care home which provides personal and nursing care to older people and people living with dementia.
The inspection was prompted following a review of information CQC held on the service. The inspection was originally focused how safe and well-led the service was, but during the inspection CQC found concerns with protecting people from harm and staffing, including recruitment procedures. The inspection was then widened to include rating effective too.
Following the inspection, the ratings for safe and well-led dropped from good to inadequate. The rating for effective fell from good to requires improvement. The ratings for caring and responsive were not looked at during the inspection and remain rated as good. Mountdale Nursing Home’s overall rating is now inadequate.
CQC has served two warning notices to the provider to make sure they provide safe care and treatment, and good governance.
The home has now been placed in special measures, meaning it must make rapid and widespread improvements, and will be kept under close review by CQC to make sure people are safe during this time. They will also be re-inspected in due course, to check on the progress of those improvements.
Hazel Roberts, CQC deputy director of operations in East of England said:
“When we inspected Mountdale Nursing Home, we were concerned to find a lack of good leadership which meant staff weren’t able to deliver the best care for people.
“The service wasn’t always following safeguarding processes to protect people from harm and abuse. Inspectors found unexplained bruising which hadn’t been investigated properly and this was echoed in feedback from staff, who had shared similar concerns with leaders, but no action was taken.
“Risks weren’t being assessed or managed effectively. Inspectors witnessed four incidents where staff were supporting people to move around, which put those people at risk of harm. We also didn't see evidence that incidents were being investigated to see how they could be prevented in the future.
“We found staff were being recruited without Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and leaders weren’t always getting staff references before hiring them. There was no record staff had been adequately interviewed and assessed during recruitment. In some cases, they’d also not sought proof of identification, to check the person was who they said they were. This is incredibly concerning.
“Since our last inspection a closed culture had developed, and we found leaders didn’t act upon feedback from people using the service. Some complaints weren’t being recorded at all so people weren’t able to speak up. It’s important that people who call Mountdale Nursing Home their home are being listened to when they raise concerns.
“We’ve reported our findings to the provider, and they know what they must address. We’ll continue to monitor the home closely and will not hesitate to take further action if we’re not assured people are receiving safe and dignified care.”
Inspectors also found:
- Harmful chemicals weren’t stored safely and securely in the home’s sluice room. These chemicals could be unsafe if a person consumed them, and they could cause serious eye irritation
- People’s care plans weren’t always detailed with information regarding their individual needs. One person’s record said they had diabetes but there was no mention of how they were being monitored and supported, putting them at risk of harm
- There was no evidence that fire safety drills were happening for night staff and personal evacuation plans, which support people who have difficulties evacuating a building in an emergency, were incomplete
- Staff levels didn’t enable people to always take part in social activities with others at the home. The service relied heavily on televisions in communal areas and one relative told inspectors they felt little activity was planned for people using the service
- People weren’t always being supported in the least restrictive ways possible and assessments of people’s mental capacity weren’t always completed. Staff displayed a lack of understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and how this impacted on people using the service
- Furniture needed replacing and areas of the home needed re-decoration to enable people to relax in the environment. Inspectors were told by a family member that they often couldn’t sit with their relative due to clutter in the communal areas
- Inspectors found the home lacked dementia-friendly household items like large screen clocks, orientation boards and reminder devices. There were also no memory boxes and other stimulating items, which help to spark conversations and reminiscence. This meant people with dementia couldn’t engage as easily with the home environment.
However:
- Medicines were being managed and administered safely, with records kept of the time medicines were given
- Relatives gave feedback that they felt people were safe and they had no concerns for their wellbeing at the home.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.