The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated St Andrews Lodge inadequate and placed it in special measures to protect people from harm, following an inspection in November.
St Andrews Lodge, run by Reed Care Homes Limited, is a residential care home for up to eight people with a mental health condition or a learning disability. At the time of this inspection eight people were using the service.
This unannounced inspection was prompted by a review of the information CQC held about the service. A focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led was undertaken.
Following the inspection, the overall rating for the home, as well as the areas of safe and well-led, have dropped from requires improvement to inadequate. This inspection did not look at how effective, caring and responsive the service is, so the previous ratings of good remain.
The service is now in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made.
CQC has also taken additional enforcement action, which will be reported on when legally able to do so.
Inspectors found:
- Medicines were not stored safely. They were stored in a small room along with the washing dryer without air flow. The dryer increased the temperature of the room when used, this could reduce the effectiveness of medication and put people at risk
- In the last two inspections, it was found that the hot water was hotter than the safe temperature and could cause burns. At this inspection, the registered manager said they had added special valves to control the water temperature. However, when checked, the water was still found to be very hot
- The arrangements for fire safety were poor. A bedroom fire door was kept open by a fridge, so it could not shut automatically if there was a fire alarm.