Abode care home on Moorland Road placed into special measures
A care home in Poulton has been placed into special measures after a recent inspection showed a number of worrying factors.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Abode, on Moorland Road, Poulton-le-Fylde inadequate overall and placed the home into special measures to protect people, following an inspection in April.
Abode, run by Abode Healthcare Ltd, provides personal care for up to 22 older people, younger adults and people living with a dementia.
This was CQC’s first inspection of the service under this provider and was undertaken to follow up on concerns raised to CQC relating to people’s safety and how the home was being managed.
Following this inspection, as well as being rated inadequate overall, safe and well-led were also rated inadequate. Effective, responsive and caring have been rated as requires improvement.
Inspectors found:
- Staff didn’t always complete people’s records accurately or appropriately and some lacked detail about people’s specific needs.
- Staff didn’t safely manage medication, including controlled drugs, and there were discrepancies in people’s medicines records putting them at risk.
- Staff didn’t always follow infection prevention practices to keep people safe from infection.
- Residents gave mixed feedback to CQC about making choices. Some said they got to make choices around what time they went to bed and got up, others explained they didn’t get choices in relation to their food preferences and activities.
- Staff flagged concerns relating to activities and the need to offer more to people to aid their well-being.
- The service was supporting people living with a learning disability, but they do not have appropriate registration in place to do this.
However it was noted that:
People’s bedrooms were personalised with their chosen items such as photos and belongings important to them.
People’s relatives fed back that there was an open dialogue of communication with managers and staff.
Leaders supported people’s families sensitively and with compassion when a loved one passed away.
Three warning notices
The CQC issued three warning notices following the inspection to focus Abode’s attention on making significant improvements around the safe care and treatment of people, how the service is being managed and the safety of the premises and its equipment.
CQC has also placed the service into special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while they make improvements.
Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.
Linda Hirst, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said: “When we inspected Abode, it was concerning to find significant shortfalls with how the home was being managed.
“There were several issues and leaders hadn’t developed solutions or listened to concerns about safety.
“Leaders hadn’t created a home environment that kept people safe from harm. For example; flooring wasn’t always even which posed a trip hazard and some areas of the home required deep cleaning.
“Our inspectors also found missing and broken restrictors to prevent people from falling out of windows.”
She added: “Staff didn’t always support people to move safely throughout the home. We saw someone who required a mobility aid using window ledges and someone else’s wheelchair to move around putting them at risk of falling. Staff saw this but didn’t intervene.
“Although people always had enough to eat and drink, we weren’t assured about the safety and quality of food being provided as we found several out-of-date items in the kitchen. Additionally, people’s dietary requirements weren’t always followed or recorded accurately.
“Staff worked with agencies involved in people’s care for the best outcomes though it was evident that some professional relationships were fractured.
“Health professionals said the culture at the home was challenging and there were often barriers put in the way by leaders preventing progress from being made.”
Follow up
She added: “We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid improvements and will continue to monitor the home closely to keep people safe while this happens. Leaders told us they were keen to make the necessary improvements as soon as possible following the inspection and staff spoke positively about the support from them. We will return to check on their progress and won’t hesitate to use our regulatory powers further if people aren’t receiving the care they have a right to expect.”
A spokesperson for Abode Healthcare said: “ We are working closely with CQC and other professionals and I would like to inform you that all works have been completed that were raised on the inspection by CQC.
“We would like to inform families and the public that no service users came to any harm or were put at any risk . We are looking forward to having our inspection in 6 months time.”