Lancashire Nursing home ordered to make improvements or face further action

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Veatreey Development Ltd that they must make urgent improvements at Moorland Nursing Home in Poulton Le Fylde, Lancashire, in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people living there.

During unannounced inspections in May and June this year, inspectors found that the home was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs or well led.

Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall, Moorland Nursing Home has been rated as Inadequate.

A full report from the inspection has been published on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-166096555.

The report highlights a number of areas of concern, including:

• People’s health needs were not always assessed and appropriate referrals to other health professionals were not always carried out.
• There was not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff on duty to ensure people's needs were met in a timely manner and to help maintain their dignity.
• Staff did not always act appropriately when allegations of abuse arose. The safeguarding systems and processes in place at the home were not effective and people were not protected from the risks of harm or abuse.
• People were not protected against the risks associated with unsafe use and management of medicines. The home was not always receiving medicines safely, up to date guidance regarding medicines was not available and the temperature of medicines was not being monitored.
• Staff were not always provided with sufficient training and supervision and had only limited knowledge regarding the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were at risk of being deprived of their liberty because legal requirements and best practice guidelines were not always followed.
• The provider did not have effective systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received and was not effective when involving other healthcare professionals in the care and treatment of the residents.

Debbie Westhead, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:

“Whilst we were told by some of the residents of Moorland Nursing Home that they felt safe and well cared for, our inspections in May and June this year found the quality of care to fell along way short of what we expect services to provide.

“It is unacceptable that the provider has allowed the service to deteriorate. Failure to adequately assess people’s needs or respond appropriately to risks and safeguarding incidents are both serious concerns.

“Since the inspection we have been working closely with the local authority to ensure that residents are not at risk. We have placed this service in special measures and made it clear where action must be taken to address the concerns identified.

“We will re-inspect the home within six months to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the service being provided remains inadequate, we will consider taking further steps to cancel its registration with CQC."

Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.

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For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Mark Humphreys on 0191 233 3519. For media enquiries about the Care Quality Commission, please 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 (please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters).

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