The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has placed Longfield Residential Home - MD in Blackburn, in special measures and told them to make urgent improvements following an inspection in August.
CQC carried out this unannounced focused inspection after receiving concerns about the lack of personal care people were receiving, staffing levels, cleanliness of the home, incorrect moving and handling procedures and infection prevention and control risks.
Following the inspection, Longfield Residential Home - MD has been rated inadequate overall, and also for being safe, caring and well-led. It was previously rated requires improvement overall. The service has now been placed in special measures.
Longfield Residential Home – MD is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 24 people living with dementia. At the time of the inspection the service was caring for 13 people aged 65 or over.
Hayley Moore, CQC’s head of inspection for adult social care, said:
“When we visited Longfield Residential Home – MD we were concerned at how dirty the home was and how undignified people’s experience of living here was. Our inspectors found that staff were not keeping people clean and well presented. We saw people with food on their clothes and faces, and the new manager told us that people's feet, looked as if they hadn’t been washed for months.
“We found dirty bedrooms, bathroom, furniture and bedding. The laundry room contained a sluice area that was so dirty staff were using a toilet area and one resident’s bedroom as a separate laundry area instead.
“We heard from one relative, that their family member had gone to hospital with faeces under their fingernails, wearing another person's clothes with holes in, another person's slippers that were too big and other people's clothes in their bag. Vulnerable people using this service rely on staff to help them live their lives with respect and dignity. This was not the case for people living at Longfield.
“People didn’t always have the privacy they deserve. One bedroom had no curtain on the window and inspectors saw someone going in and out of other people's bedrooms, even when someone was in there. Everyone deserves their own private space and should not be expected to put up with these conditions.
“Aside from the poor experience people had living in this service, it also wasn’t safe. Longfield didn’t have enough staff to meet people’s needs, so used agency staff that were unreliable and didn’t have the appropriate training to look after people.
“All of the staff we spoke to told us they wouldn’t be happy to have one of their family members living in the service and they were also concerned about cleanliness at the home.
“During our visit, the provider started to address our concerns and is continuing to make further improvements, to ensure people are living in a safe and clean environment. We will continue to monitor the home closely and will not hesitate to take further action if necessary.”
Inspectors found the following issues at the service:
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) stations were not always adequately stocked and staff were not always wearing PPE correctly. Staff had not always had training in infection prevention and control putting people at risk
- Some staff had not completed COVID-19 tests on a regular basis but were still working in the service, putting them at risk of passing it on to vulnerable people
- Risks to people's health and safety were not always assessed and managed. For example, those at risk of weight loss were not being weighed as frequently as required, putting them at serious risk of malnutrition. People were also at risk due to incorrect moving and handling procedures from staff
- Medicines were not always managed safely. One staff member was unsure what a certain medicine they were administering was prescribed for and some medicines weren’t being stored properly which may have an impact on how effective it is
- The provider had not always notified CQC of safeguarding incidents that had occurred
- Records such as audits and risk assessments were often incomplete, accurate and not up to date. This put people at risk as staff didn’t have all the information they needed to make sure people got the care they needed. Especially in a service that was using a lot of agency staff who didn’t know people personall
- The service did not promote a positive culture for people living here or enable people to achieve their goals support them to fulfil their interests
- People using the service were not always safe from the risk of fire. Staff did not always know how to respond in the event of a fire or emergency situation and personal emergency evacuation plans were not always accurate.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on our website.
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