Archived: Gorton Parks Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has changed to requires improvement. This meant people did not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

The provider was in breach of the legal regulations relating to person-centred care.

The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulation in relation to person-centred care, safe care and treatment and staffing. At this assessment, we found the provider remained in breach of the regulation.

This service scored 40 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People were not always treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. Privacy and dignity were not always respected.

We observed people to be in their bedrooms, lay in bed without sufficient blankets to protect their dignity. One person was found to be distressed on several occasions and required support and reassurance from staff, but staff were often too busy. As the person’s room was towards the end of the corridor, staff often did not respond to the person’s needs in a timely manner.

We observed people to be unkempt. People were not always provided with protective clothing at mealtimes which meant their clothing became stained and people were not always supported to change into clean clothing.

We observed several people had little or no interaction from staff for 1 hour or more. One person was sat at a dining table and staff were in the vicinity but did not make any attempt to communicate with them. Another person whose first language was not English was sat in the communal lounge for over 2 hours without any interaction. A third person was consistently shouting for staff’s attention but was not always acknowledged.

People told us staff were kind but said there were not enough staff and there were constant changes of staff which impacted on their care. Relatives we spoke with confirmed this and told us, “The staff are pleasant, not that engaged though. They seem to have some activities in the morning but keeping them engaged is lacking” and “Many of the carers get moved around to the other units and they have moved a lot of the good carers from [Name’s] unit to another unit.”

Staff were not prompting people to eat and drink. Some people were left with a hot meal in front them for 10 minutes or more before any attempt at prompting them to eat was made. People were not always supported to the dining table at mealtimes. We observed some people were eating from portable tables which affected their posture and reduced their ability of eating independently.

The provider did not treat people as individuals or make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. The provider did not take account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

The provider had not considered how people’s strengths and abilities could contribute to the operation of the home. People talked fondly of their previous occupations including nursing, gardeners and factory workers. One person told us they enjoyed gardening but were unable to attend to the gardens due to the condition of them or there not being enough staff. Another person who was a retired nurse told us they had very little to do and the provider had not considered strategies to engage them in meaningful tasks.

Where people’s first language was not English or they had communication difficulties, the provider had not considered strategies to support effective communication. Staff who were able to speak a particular language were not allocated to support people who spoke the same language. This resulted in people being isolated. One person was cared for in their room and staff were unable to understand them and the person was unable to understand staff. This resulted in the person often refusing care and support which had a negative impact on their overall health.

People who requested a Halal diet were provided with suitable products, but other people told us, they had asked for a varied diet to include Asian and West Indian food, and they had not received it.

People were not in control of their care and support. Relatives told us some people were left in bed when they wished to be up. People and relatives told us there was a lack of stimulation, particularly on the weekends when no activity staff were working.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care.

Staff told us they felt supported by the manager and management team but raised concerns about staffing levels. Some staff were regularly working excessive hours. We saw one nurse had been working between 60 and 72 hours per week and some care assistants were regularly working 50 hours per week or more.

Staff did not feel there were enough staff to support people which impacted on staff morale and supporting people effectively. Comments from staff included, “There is usually not enough staff to support people with their needs. Sometimes one nurse gives medications to 24 patients on (their) own through the day. Rather difficult with the morning medications as there are so many. During the night there are usually 2 carers and one nurse but there are occasions where one nurse is on shift with one carer” and “We have 2 or 3 staff on and there would need to be 4 to do everything we need to. We need to look after residents and to clean the lounges, the bathrooms, the chairs and bed if necessary due to accidents. There are not enough staff.”

Staff told us they had raised concerns about staffing with managers but felt it needed addressing from a higher level.