We Can Recover CIC in Liverpool, has been rated inadequate again by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and remains in special measures, following an inspection carried out in February.
A focused inspection was carried out to follow up on enforcement action taken at the last inspection when CQC temporarily suspended the provider’s registration until 17 March due to significant safety issues identified.
We Can Recover CIC is a private company which provides inpatient care and detoxification for up to 24 people with addictions such as alcohol or drugs.
Following the latest inspection, as well as being rated inadequate overall following, the service was also rated inadequate for being safe and well-led. Effective, caring and responsive have not been inspected, therefore remain unrated.
Karen Knapton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:
“When we inspected We Can Recover CIC, whilst we saw some areas where improvements had been made, managers hadn’t acted fully on the serious issues identified in the suspension notice and there were continued safety concerns.
“At the last inspection we found that leaders had a poor understanding of the service, and this continued to be the case. For example, inspectors had to prompt leaders to create an on-call system to support staff who were carrying out shifts on their own in case something went wrong, or they needed advice.
“We previously told leaders that there weren’t enough experienced nursing and medical staff to deliver high quality, safe care to people. On this inspection we saw that managers had offered positions to four registered nurses but most lacked previous experience in substance misuse which is fundamental to the role.
“However, we saw improvements had been made regarding staff training with the introduction of a new record system which detailed existing and recently appointed staff undertaking training around safeguarding, medicines management and basic lifesaving.
“We have fed back our concerns to the provider and will continue to monitor the service closely. We will inspect again and expect to see further improvements as people deserve a much higher and safer standard of care, and we won’t hesitate to take further enforcement action if necessary to keep people safe.”
Findings from the inspection included:
- Managers, including the new clinical lead, did not have experience in delivering a medically managed detoxification service
- Clinic rooms weren’t fully equipped
- Leaders hadn’t implemented safe systems and processes to provide safe and good quality care to people using the service
- The admission process was unsafe, in that staff who screened client’s admission and risks weren’t trained to do so
- Information CQC requested wasn’t available during the inspection and requested information from the previous two inspections remained outstanding
- The process around clinical oversight and supervision of registered nurses in medicine management remained unclear.
However:
- The provider had purchased new equipment for the clinic room and had reviewed their arrangements for emergency medicines
- The service had revised the medicines administration policy and included additional guidance on as required medicines and a medicines risk assessment form
- The provider had reviewed their exclusion criteria to include those with complex health problems for whom they wouldn’t be able to provide care
- Managers had completed all appropriate employment checks for every staff member who had commenced employment.