The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Ferguson Lodge in Old Benwell Village in Newcastle upon Tyne, requires improvement, following inspections across May, June and July.
Ferguson Lodge is a care home that provides accommodation and personal care for up to 46 people. The service provides support to people with a dementia related condition, physical disability, or sensory impairment.
The inspection was prompted in part by the notification of an incident where a person using the service sustained a serious injury. This incident is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any regulatory action should be taken. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident. However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the the safety of equipment, and this inspection examined those risks.
Inspectors looked at the areas of safe, effective and well-led. Following the inspection, the overall rating for the home, as well as the areas of safe and effective, have moved down from good to requires improvement. How well-led the service is has moved down from good to inadequate.
Linda Hirst, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:
“When we inspected Ferguson Lodge, we were checking to see whether the service was well-led and provided safe and effective care to people living there. What we found was a poorly managed service where improvements are needed to ensure people remain safe in the place they call home.
“We identified shortfalls across the service including the assessment of risk, management of medicines, duty of candour, safeguarding, need for consent, staffing and governance.
“It’s important that equipment is checked regularly to keep people safe and free from harm, but regular checks on equipment such as wheelchairs and bed rails weren’t being undertaken to make sure they were safe for use.
“Leaders also need to ensure there are enough staff to meet people’s needs. We observed staff unnecessarily restricting people and leaving them sat in chairs when they were busy completing other tasks.
“However, we did see some positive areas of care. Staff displayed kind and caring attitudes towards people during their interactions despite being very busy, and people spoke positively about staff.
“We will continue to monitor the service closely to ensure significant improvements are made. If we are not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action to ensure people are receiving the high standard of care they deserve.”
Inspectors found:
- Staff didn’t always recognise when an incident required a safeguarding referral
- There were delays in staff responding to people who required help as there were insufficient staff to meet people's needs
- The provider had not provided training they said was mandatory to all staff
- Medicines were not always managed safely. For example, quantities of remaining medicines didn’t always match the records of doses administered.
However:
- People's nutritional and hydration needs were met. People told us food was appetising and that alternatives were available to them
- Systems were in place to ensure staff received regular supervision with a member of the management team.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.