The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Meavy View Retirement Home in Rochdale inadequate and kept it in special measures again to protect people following an inspection in January and February.
Meavy View is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 32 people. At the time of this inspection there were 23 people using the service
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action CQC told the provider to take at the previous inspection last April.
As well as the home being re-rated as inadequate overall, so have the ratings for being safe and well-led. Effective and responsive have again been rated as requires improvement, and caring has been re-rated as good.
The service will remain in special measures which means it will be kept under close review by CQC. CQC have also taken further enforcement action to protect people and will report on this when legally able to do so.
Alison Chilton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:
“When we inspected Meavy View Retirement Home, we were deeply concerned to find significant improvements hadn’t been made since the previous inspection last year. The provider still wasn’t effectively monitoring the quality of care being provided in order to drive improvements across the home to ensure it was a safe place for people to live.
“We found people’s care plans lacked detail or were incorrect. For example, where people required a modified diet, we found care plans and risk assessments were either inaccurate or lacked detail. Thickening powder, used to manage people's risk of choking had been incorrectly added to someone’s drinks for four months as a result of inaccurate record keeping, which is totally unacceptable.
“Inspectors found the control panel in the lift was loose and coming away from the wall, which was a potential risk to people, as they could come to harm if they put their fingers in it. This was reported to the registered manager, however no action was taken to make it safe during the inspection.
“Additionally, a fence had fallen down and was left on the ground. The purpose of the fence was to protect people from a drop to a lower level, and it also now presented a trip hazard.
“However, people spoke positively about the staff who worked at the home.
“We’ve told leaders at Meavy View Retirement Home to take urgent action on the issues we found and we'll be monitoring this service closely to ensure people are kept safe in future. We’ve also taken further enforcement action and will report on this when we’re legally able to do so.”
Inspectors found:
- There were gaps or a lack of detail in people's risk assessments
- Medicines were not always managed safely, as inspectors identified a number of issues with record keeping including accurate and contemporaneous completion of the medicines administration records
- People were not always protected from the risk of infection as staff were not consistently following safe infection prevention and control practices
- Staff absence was not always covered. Rotas confirmed the required number of staff had not always been deployed.
However:
- The provider shared examples of their involvement with local organisations and community groups. This included school children visiting the home to sing to someone on their birthday, and a local church choir visiting the home at Christmas.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.