Archived: Hamer Cottage

Updated 30 March 2016

Hamer Cottage provides 24 hour care and treatment for people who are recovering from alcohol or substance misuse. The service is based just outside Rochdale city centre. It has 13 beds over three floors. The service provides residential rehabilitation and recovery through offering a range of individual and group based work. The service accepts nationwide referrals from male and females aged 18 or over. The service accepts referrals for people who are NHS funded.

The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse. Shanna Maling Lancaster was the registered manager. At the time of this inspection in December 2015, there were nine people receiving care and treatment at the service.

We have inspected Hamer Cottage twice before. We last inspected Hamer Cottage on 4 April 2013 and found that it was meeting all the standards we looked at on that inspection.

In January 2016, the provider told us that they have closed the service and we are processing the cancellation of their registration.

Updated 30 March 2016

We found that:

• Soft furnishings and mattresses were dirty and heavily stained.

• There was poor maintenance throughout the building and equipment.

• Food was not being stored appropriately and there was a small amount of out of date food stored in cupboards.

• There was no legionella testing and monitoring to ensure that adequate measures were in place to control the risk of exposure to legionella bacteria.

• The registered manager had made several requests to the owner to try to address various aspects of the cleanliness and maintenance of the premises but these had not been actioned.

• Staff were not always ensuring fire safety as doors were wedged open, noticeboards were not updated and fire safety checks were not occurring as regularly as the policy stated.• The quality checks were not robust and had failed to fully address these issues.

• There were not appropriate contingency arrangements to ensure that, in the event of absence, Hamer Cottage would be appropriately staffed.

• There was not an overall system for checking whether this service was continually meeting all of the regulations required whilst they were registered with the Care Quality Commission.

As a result of what we found, we issued the provider with warning notices in December 2015 in relation to regulation breaches about premises due to poor cleanliness and maintenance and the quality checks in place.

In the warning notices, we told the provider they need to take action by January 2016 to improve the cleanliness and by March 2016 to improve the management and quality assurance of the service.

We would normally return after these dates to check that improvements had been made. However, the provider has told us that they have closed the service and we are processing the cancellation of their registration.