Grantley Court Nursing Home: update

There has been further media coverage on CQC's actions in relation to Grantley Court Nursing Home in Sutton, south London, and the provider Mr Cooppen.

CQC has acknowledged that it should have published the report from the January 2014 inspection sooner and has apologised for this. CQC took action at Grantley Court Nursing Home after serious failings were identified at an inspection in September 2014.

Sally Warren, CQC's Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in London, said:

"We are sorry that the report on Grantley Court from an inspection last January was not published until September. This wasn't good enough – we know that our reports are an important source of information for the public, and that they – alongside regular monitoring visits they do themselves to check up on the safety of the people in their care – are useful for local authorities too.

"We identified concerns at Grantley Court in January which required that the provider make improvements. CQC highlighted the failings it had found to Mr Cooppen and told him to take action.

"At the September inspection, CQC found that Mr Cooppen had not taken action to improve quality, and that in fact standards of care at Grantley Court had deteriorated rapidly between inspections. The serious concerns at Grantley Court in September meant that we initiated our normal closure process – and Sutton Council took action to keep people safe in the meantime, and to work with residents and their families to move them to new homes.

"When we identified serious concerns at both Grantley Court and Merok Park, we took action straight away. The concerns at Merok Park represented a more serious immediate risk to people's safety, so that home was closed immediately.

"The failings identified at both homes were appalling, and the provider should be ashamed of the 'care' their services were delivering. Nobody should be treated like this at any stage in their life, but especially not when their circumstances make them especially vulnerable. We will take part in any investigations which happen regarding these homes – and will take further action to make sure that our reports are published more quickly, especially where failings are identified.

"We would like to express our sympathy to all those who received care which fell a very long way short of what they, and we, should have been able to expect from the provider."