The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Omega Integrated Care Limited in Chesham inadequate overall and placed urgent conditions on the registration of the service. It has also been placed in special measures.
Omega Integrated Care Limited is a care agency which provides personal care for adults, some of whom are living with dementia, in their own homes.
CQC carried out an announced inspection of the service during November and December, after concerns were raised about missed care visits, which could put people at risk of harm. This was the first inspection of the service since it registered with CQC in April 2020. At the start of the inspection, the service was providing care to seven people, by the end, this had reduced to three people.
Following the inspection, the service was rated inadequate overall, and inadequate for being safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Rebecca Bauers, CQC’s head of adult social care inspection, said:
“When we inspected Omega Integrated Care Limited, we had serious concerns about the overall governance of the service, as well as the lack of suitably qualified and trained staff and the provider’s management of risks. People using the service were not being protected from abuse, care plans were not tailored to ensure that people’s individual health and nutritional needs were taken into consideration, and medicines were not being given to people safely in line with the prescription.
“Safeguarding incidents, such as missed care visits, and incidents relating to the management of medicines and a person’s fall and injury, were not reported to CQC or the local safeguarding authority. In addition, the manager failed to learn from these incidents and put steps in place to prevent them from happening again. We also had real concerns about the registered manager’s understanding of their role and responsibilities.
“Because of this, we imposed urgent conditions on the service, preventing it from providing care to new people without our permission. We will continue to monitor the service closely to ensure that improvements are made and fully embedded. If we find that they are not, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action.”
Inspectors found the following during this inspection:
- People were not always supported by trained or experienced staff. The provider failed to ensure appropriate recruitment checks were completed to check staff were of good character, prior to their employment. They also did not check that staff had completed training or competency assessments for care being delivered
- Systems had not been established to monitor the quality and safety of the service, manage risks, or safeguard people from avoidable harm
- Medicines were not safely managed to ensure people always received their medicine as prescribed
- The service failed to mitigate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 to people. The manager said they were unaware of government guidance regarding weekly PCR tests for homecare staff and did not monitor the results of lateral flow tests
- People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not consistently support good practice
- People did not always have their needs fully assessed or reviewed. Care plans did not always provide appropriate guidance for staff to meet people's health, nutrition and hydration needs, or their end of life wishes. Care plans did not clearly identify what support people needed and what they could do for themselves
- Inspectors received mixed feedback from people and relatives about whether staff protected people's dignity and treated them with respect
- Complaints were not well managed, and people did not receive information about their rights or how to complain
- The provider did not notify the Care Quality Commission of incidents as required. This meant CQC could not check the service took appropriate action to anticipate and respond to concerns and risks to people.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on our website.
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