The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated High Lea House in Oswestry as inadequate and placed it into special measures following an inspection in December.
The home, run by Miss Y Wakefield, provides care for older adults. There were 23 people living there at the time of the visit.
The overall rating of the home as well as the areas of safe, effective and well-led have dropped from good to inadequate. Caring and responsive drop from good to requires improvement.
Following the inspection, CQC served four warning notices to High Lea House to focus their attention on making sure people using the service receive safe care and treatment that reflects their needs and preferences and improving their management of the service.
The service has been placed in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people already living there safe while improvements are made.
Amanda Lyndon, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said:
We were disappointed to find that the quality of the service provided by High Lea House had deteriorated since our previous visit. People didn’t always receive safe care and treatment. While the people we spoke to were generally pleased with the care they received, we found that the service often failed to provide care and treatment that met expected standards.
Our inspection team found that leaders didn’t always investigate incidents to identify areas of learning and improvement. One person had fallen ten times, but staff only investigated one of those falls. This meant that staff didn’t fully understand what had happened or how they could prevent it happening again. In notes from another review, staff had referred a person to their GP after a fall, but management couldn’t provide evidence this had actually happened.
High Lea House didn’t maintain the home’s environment to a safe standard. For example, management hadn’t protected people from the risk of burns and scalds because they didn’t check that hot water taps were at a safe temperature, and pipework was uncovered in several locations. The inspection team had to raise these concerns and management took immediate action.
Leaders also didn’t support staff to meet people’s dietary requirements. A health professional had identified someone at risk of choking but leaders hadn’t advised staff of this or how to support the person while eating and drinking. Our inspectors observed staff serving unsafe food to this resident.
We have told High Lea House where improvements are urgently needed and will keep the service under close review to monitor their progress. We won’t hesitate to use our regulatory powers further if this doesn’t happen.
Inspectors found:
- Staff didn’t regularly review people’s care plans and risk assessments.
- The home failed to involve people in choices around their care, including planning their end-of-life care choices. Leaders also didn’t give people or their families the opportunity to feedback about their care.
- Leaders didn’t make sure that staff had received the correct training to move people safely.
- Leaders didn’t always respond to concerns raised by external agencies. The Environmental Health Agency had told the home to make improvements, but these hadn’t been addressed by the time they revisited, and some were still outstanding during CQC’s visit.
- Leaders didn’t provide staff with the opportunity to share their views. Staff felt uncomfortable raising concerns or suggesting improvements.
- The home didn’t always have enough staff which impacted their ability to keep people safe. Some employment checks weren’t carried out for new staff meaning unsuitable people could be working with vulnerable residents.
However:
- A new manager had identified improvements needed and submitted an action plan to address concerns. Staff told us that the new manager was supportive and listened to their concerns.
- Professionals were positive about working in partnership with the service.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the coming days.