The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken enforcement action to cancel the provision of services by Thames Healthcare Service Limited at Peel House in Merton, South London, following serious concerns identified during inspections.
Inspectors initially identified numerous concerns during a previous inspection in July 2015, including inadequate risk management, unsafe medicines management, out of date and inconsistent individual care plans, a lack of service quality monitoring systems being in place and ineffective recruitment processes.
A further inspection held in November 2015 to check for improvements found ineffective action had been taken to rectify the serious concerns that had been raised. Inspectors found that necessary changes and improvements had still not been made; in particular, staff recruitment processes remained unsafe.
A full report from the inspection has been published on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-933055846.
During the most recent inspection in November 2015, inspectors found that methods used to check that service users received their medicines as they were prescribed remained inadequate, and errors were observed with individual medicine records.
The provider did not have the necessary senior staff in place to carry out the changes and improvements required. There was no registered manager in place at the time of the most recent inspection to handle the running of the service.
There were no changes or improvements to recruitment processes. Evidence was found to demonstrate that the provider had employed several staff members without suitable employment references and had not carried out criminal records checks or verified that applicants had the right to work in the UK.
No structured systems were in place to ensure that individual support plans and risk assessments were regularly reviewed, and that individual needs were being met.
Due to the serious nature of the on-going issues identified, and the lack of action taken to make required improvements since the July 2015 inspection, CQC served a notice to cancel the personal care service, which has now closed.
Deborah Ivanova, Interim Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care in London and the South, said:
"When a social care provider is failing to deliver the required standards of care, our first approach is to work with them to ensure that the service improves. The provider has a responsibility to ensure that all people receive care that is responsive to their needs and that they are protected from the risk of harm at all times.
“During our inspection in July 2015, we identified a number of serious issues including, poor risk management, unsafe medicines management, error-prone medicine administration methods, and a lack of individual care plans being in place and incomplete recruitment processes.
“When we returned to the provider in November 2015 to check progress, we were disappointed to see that despite enforcement action taken against the provider to address these issues, Peel House had not made the required changes to address the serious concerns and reduce the risks to people receiving care.
We therefore had to take further action to cancel the registration of the personal care service in order to protect people from the risks of receiving inadequate care."
Ends
For further information please contact Yetunde Akintewe, CQC Regional Engagement Manager, on 07471 020 659. For media enquiries, call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here.
For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.
Find out more
Read reports from our checks on the standards at Peel House.