The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has dropped the rating for Wood Hill Lodge in Sheffield from good to inadequate following an inspection in October.
Wood Hill Lodge, run by Portland Care 4 Limited is a care home that care for adults living with physical disabilities and mental health issues, including older adults living with dementia. This inspection was prompted to follow up on breaches found at a previous inspection in August.
As well as the service dropping from good to inadequate overall, it has also dropped from good to inadequate for being safe and well-led. Effective, caring and responsive were not looked at during this inspection.
CQC are taking regulatory action to protect people and will report on this when legally able to do so.
Wood Hill Lodge has been placed into special measures and will be closely monitored to keep people safe, and CQC will inspect again to assess if improvements have been made.
Jenny Wilkes, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:
“When we inspected Wood Hill Lodge, we were disappointed to find people weren’t always being supported to live in a safe and dignified way and leaders hadn’t ensured staff knew how to meet people’s specific needs, including those people living with dementia.
“We found the environment was in a poor state of repair and bedrooms had broken furniture. For example, there were chest of drawers broken, no fronts on drawers or the drawers had collapsed. There were chairs that people were sat in stained with urine, unclean mattresses and bedding stained with faeces.
“People's health was placed at risk of harm because their medicines were unavailable or out of stock. One person missed daily doses of their laxative for ten days and another person was unable to have 14 doses of their anxiety medicine and they experienced severe anxiety.
“Records weren’t always up to date and accurate. For example, we found people at risk of weight loss were placed on food charts, but these hadn’t been completed properly.
”People were sat in the same chair or wheelchair all day with no change of environment or social stimulation. Also, the terms staff used to describe people that weren’t always person centred. Staff referred to people as walkers and wheelchairs. This derogatory language was not picked up by service managers.
“We’ll continue to monitor the service closely to ensure improvements are made and won’t hesitate to take further action if we’re not assured people are receiving safe and dignified care.”
Inspectors also found:
- Staff said they did not feel supported
- Incidents had not always been logged and there was little evidence that they were investigated thoroughly to explore where improvements could be made
- Staff did not follow infection prevention and control procedures putting people at risk of infection
- There was not an effective system in place to engage with people and relatives.
However:
- People were supported to continue relationships with family and friends who were welcome to visit the home without restrictions.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.