The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Amelia House Care Home, York that they must make improvements to protect the safety and welfare of people they care for. It follows an inspection in November and December 2017 and January and February 2018.
At the time of the inspection there were 71 people living at the home. The home is divided into three areas: Appleton (general nursing), Bancroft (dementia residential) and Carlton (dementia nursing). The accommodation is on three floors with a passenger lift to connect all areas of the home.
At an inspection in October 2015 CQC judged the service to be Requires Improvement in Safe and Good in all other areas. Overall it was rated as Requires Improvement. At this inspection CQC rated the service as Inadequate for safety, responsiveness, effectiveness and well-led and Requires Improvement for caring.
The full report from the inspection can be found on our website.
Some of the findings from the latest inspection included:
The service was required to have a registered manager in post and on the first two days of the inspection there was a manager in post who had not yet registered with CQC. This manager subsequently left. From the third day onwards there was an acting home manager in post.
The home was not recruiting people in a safe or robust manner. Inspectors saw one member of staff had been recruited to a senior role despite them being aware of a poor reference from a previous employer.
Since the inspection in November 2015 inspectors found there remained a lack of effective leadership and management oversight. The inspection team found that systems and processes established to ensure people received a good standard of care had not identified the concerns CQC found.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:
“At its last inspection in October 2015, Amelia House was rated as Requires Improvement. It is disappointing that there has been a further deterioration. Worryingly there were too many examples of unsafe care."
“We reviewed the records for one person who had been identified as being at high risk of falling because they had fallen three times in the last month. This occurred as a result of staff not fastening the lap strap in the person's wheelchair. The acting home manager told us the staff member involved was an agency member of staff and was not aware of the need for this."
“We had major concerns about the dementia nursing unit. People were not receiving safe and effective treatment because the provider had not put in place measures to reduce the risk of falling. These include sensor mats which would alert staff to the person mobilising and anti-slip mats to reduce the risk of sliding from a chair."
“Unfortunately inspectors had to intervene and prompt staff on duty to take action to keep people safe. Despite identifying these concerns to the management team when we returned the following day we found the measures were not in place. This meant people were at risk of ongoing harm."
“Because of our concerns about people's care and treatment during the inspection, we made six individual safeguarding referrals to City of York Council. We will monitor the outcome of these investigations. Audits by the provider had identified some areas of concern but they had not ensured that improvements were sustained. Worryingly the provider had failed to identify the concerns we had identified during our last inspection."
“I expect providers should use our inspection reports to help address their problems and rectify them as a matter of urgency, consequently Amelia House has been placed in special measures. We will be keep the service under review and If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement policy."
Ends
For further information, please contact David Fryer, Regional Communications Manager - North, on 07754 438750.
Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here.
Please note: the press office is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters. For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.
there were too many examples of unsafe care
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North