The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has dropped the rating for Amberley Hall Care Home from good to inadequate following an inspection in July 2023.
Amberley Hall Care Home, run by Athena Care Homes (Gaywood) Limited, provides nursing and residential care for up to 106 people in Norfolk. This inspection was prompted by concerns CQC received about people’s needs not being met in a safe and timely way.
As well as the service dropping from good to inadequate overall, it has also dropped from good to inadequate for being safe and well-led. This inspection didn’t rate how effective, caring and responsive the service was so these remain rated good.
CQC has placed the service into special measures and issued multiple warning notices to focus the provider’s attention on making rapid and widespread improvements. CQC will closely monitor the service during this time to keep people safe and will inspect again to assess if improvements are made.
Gill Hodgson-Reilly, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said:
“When we inspected Amberley Hall Care Home, we were disappointed to find people weren’t always being supported to live in a safe and dignified way and leaders hadn’t ensured staff knew how to meet people’s specific needs, particularly those of people living with dementia.
“We saw some people had unclean nails and teeth because there weren’t enough staff to support them and parts of the home were unclean and smelled unpleasant, raising people’s risk of infection. The environment also allowed unsupervised access to items that could be dangerous particularly for people with dementia, such as razors, denture cleaning tablets, personal care products, and staff’s personal possessions.
“Additionally, we found people weren’t always being supported in the least restrictive ways possible and assessments of people’s mental capacity weren’t always detailed enough to ensure care respected people’s human rights and maximised their choice and control over their lives.
“Inspectors reported multiple safeguarding incidents to the local authority, including related to restrictive practice.
“Leaders lacked oversight of the service and, where they completed their own checks, weren't identifying the problems we saw, meaning they were unable to develop solutions. This is meant to be people’s home and they deserve the same good quality of life that many of us take for granted.
“We’ll continue to monitor the service closely to ensure improvements are made and won’t hesitate to take further action if we’re not assured people are receiving safe and dignified care.”
Inspectors also found:
- Staff didn’t always respond promptly to call bells or alerts that people had gotten up, which could risk people’s safety
- When things went wrong, leaders didn’t always take prompt or effective action to protect people from mistakes being repeated in future
- Some gates and doors out of the building and surrounding garden didn’t close securely, which could result in people leaving the service without staff knowing. This could pose a risk to the safety of people, particularly those with dementia, and CQC was notified of four such incidents prior to this inspection where people had left the service
- Records didn’t always demonstrate people received their medicines as prescribed
- People weren’t always supported by staff to change their position regularly to protect them from pressure ulcers.
However:
- People had the opportunity to feedback on the service through regular meetings
- People and their relatives said they felt welcome to visit the service and access the local community.