Wirral Council has suspended services at a home caring for people with dementia after it was slammed in a recent inspection.
The Court residential care home on Barton Road in Hoylake, Wirral has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and placed into special measures.
As a result, Wirral Council suspended placing people under its care in the home “due to quality-of-care concerns” on 23 August.
However people in the home run by Ryding Care Services Limited told the CQC it was a safe place to live with relatives providing mainly positive feedback who said they were kept informed.
The CQC said records of people’s consent were not always recorded in line with guidelines under the Mental Capacity Act and “the environment had not been adapted to meet the needs of people living with dementia.”
According to the watchdog, “People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives, and records did not show that staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.”
One person has been recommended a diet to help them gain weight but this information was not transferred to their care plan and the person continued to lose weight.
The CQC also found consent forms had been signed by family members or staff who had no legal authority to consent on the person’s behalf.
Inconsistencies were also found in consent records about specific decisions and “records in relation to people’s day-to-day care were poor” with some “impossible to read due to the quality of the handwriting.”
Radiator covers were found to be loose or broken with damaged pots and laundry detergent found in the garden. The report also found “ serious concerns with the management of the service and the safe delivery of care,” a lack of fire exit signs, and fire doors were found wedged open.
The report also found one person’s bedroom had little privacy as it was next to the seating area and “their door was open all day, with the person sat in full view of everybody in the lounge area.”
There was also no bath within the home and the walls had mainly been painted white “making it difficult for people to navigate independently.” Audits carried by Riding Care Services did not highlight issues spotted by the CQC.
The report found one person didn’t have risk assessments in place, a fire escape was covered by overgrown trees, and one person had no detailed plans of what care they needed.
The door to the medicine room was not always closed and locked when staff left the room which meant “people were at increased risk of accessing medicines that were not prescribed for them.” The home’s cleaning trolley and communal bathroom were also found to be dirty.
Concerns were raised to the CQC about a lack of staffing and there was no analysis tool to help Ryding Care Services establish how many staff needed to be on shift. However people did not have to wait long for support during the inspection.
The report also found that not all staff had completed safeguarding training and “although accidents and incidents were managed, there was no evidence that they were reviewed regularly to look for potential trends and ways to minimise any further potential incidents.”
It also found “there was no oversight of the records that had been completed to ensure people ate and drank enough.
“One person required their fluid intake to be monitored at the request of their GP, but records were not available for several days and those that were showed insufficient fluids had been offered.”
The report did find new staff completed induction training and staff felt well supported and were able to raise issues. Families also said GP advice was sought quickly when needed.
Ryding Care Services was approached for comment.
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