The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken action to protect people following an inspection of Mont Calm Residential Home in September.
Mont Calm Residential Home in Maidstone, Kent is run by MGL Healthcare Limited. It provides personal and nursing care to people, including people living with dementia. There were 25 people living in the home at the time of inspection.
Following the inspection, CQC issued three warning notices to MGL Healthcare Limited for not providing safe care, safe staffing and not managing the service effectively. Due to the seriousness of the concerns, CQC took action to immediately suspend the ratings of service following the inspection.
The service is now rated as inadequate overall, as are the ratings for being safe, effective, caring, response and well-led.
As a result, CQC has placed the home into special measures, meaning it will be kept under review and closely monitored to ensure people are kept safe whilst improvements are made.
Serena Coleman, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said:
We were deeply concerned by our findings at Mont Calm Residential Home. We found a service where safety risks weren’t managed well and people weren’t being supported to live an independent life or have access meaningful and person-centred activities.
The care provided was institutionalised care. Staff told inspectors that care wasn’t based on the support needs or choices of people. Staff weren’t confident people had choices in their care with some residents aware they were following a regimented routine, such as one bath a week or being dressed and in the lounge by 8am each day.
The service didn’t always investigate incidents which placed people at risk. When an incident occurred, staff did contact relatives, but they weren’t always provided with accurate information on how the incident happened as they kept poor records which lacked detail. This meant that opportunities to learn from incidents and prevent them from happening in future were missed.
We saw one person had a large bruise on their face which occurred the day before our visit and was recorded as an unwitnessed injury. A member of staff told us how this could have occurred, but they were uncertain.
We’ve told the home where immediate improvements must be made. We’re currently working with other organisations including the local authority and monitoring the home very closely to make sure people are kept safe while this happens.
Inspectors also found:
- People and their relatives weren’t always involved in planning their care. Inspectors saw many people’s care plans were generic, incomplete, or inaccurate. These also didn’t always include people’s preferences or protect peoples’ rights.
- There was a lack of person-centred activities in the home. Residents’ comments about their day included being bored
- People were sometimes given as and when medicines when it may not have been necessary.
- Staff were not effectively trained or supervised to meet the needs of the people living there.
- A senior member of staff was observed lifting a person from under the person’s armpits which risked damaging the person’s skin and shoulder and injury to the member of staff. Inspectors raised this to the local authority safeguarding team.
- The service didn’t always ensure risks associated with people’s care were managed safely. For example, one person had frequent seizures. The guidance in their care plan stated staff should record the length of the seizure to determine whether emergency medicine was required. However, there was no guidance on how staff should support the person during a seizure.
The report will be published on CQC’s website on in the next few days.
