10 December 2015
During an inspection looking at part of the service
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• Food was not being stored appropriately and there was a small amount of out of date food stored in cupboards.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.