Residents at a dementia care home in West Derby were forced to go without vital medicine after staff did not maintain stock.
A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report into performance at Larkhill Hall on Muirhead Avenue East raised concern regarding the safety of those living at the facility after it was found medicines were not always managed correctly. As a result, the health inspector has deemed the home to be requiring improvement.
A wide-ranging inspection was carried out at Larkhill Hall last month.
The home provides accommodation and personal care to up to 66 older people; including people with dementia. At the time of the inspection there were 63 people living in the home.
The report said during the previous assessment of the site, areas of improvement were identified around the management of people’s prescribed medicines. It said, “At this inspection we identified further concerns with the management of medicines and governance.
“Medication practices observed placed people at risk of harm through not receiving their medicines as prescribed or on time.” Additionally, it was found the home left some residents without “essential” medication for a “prolonged time period.”
The report said, “We found four people had not been given some of their medicines as they were out of stock.”
Some care plans reviewed contained inconsistencies and were not reflective of people’s current needs, for example one person had been reviewed by a dietician following weight loss and actions recommended by a dietician had not been followed, placing the person at risk of further weight and “at risk of avoidable harm.”
This led to the safety of Larkhill Hall being deemed inadequate and contributing to the home’s overall rating of requires improvement.
Responding to the report, Allison Boyle, quality director at Ideal Carehomes – which manages Larkhill Hall – said, “We are disappointed with the report from the Care Quality Commission and that we have fallen short of our usual high standards. We take all comments from CQC seriously and the safety and care of our residents will always be our main priority.
“Our senior management team has been providing additional support to the home and the impact of this, along with our robust action plans, is already evident. The inspector noted feedback from residents and relatives was positive and this is testament to the compassionate and dedicated staff team who always put their residents first.
“Our genuinely caring team, together with our quality leadership support, will ensure that Larkhill Hall continues to improve and will return to the good rating that it deserves.”
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