A Nottinghamshire care home has been rated ‘inadequate’ after a watchdog uncovered a ‘risk of neglect’ – including one incident of an inspector having to intervene to help a resident at risk of falling because there were no staff around to help.
Braywood Gardens Care Home in Carlton, run by Runwood Homes, was investigated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in May this year, partly due to the concerns they had received about people’s safety and personal care.
The commission is the independent watchdog of health and social care in England.
Following the inspection, published on Thursday (August 29), the Millbrook Drive home’s overall rating dropped from ‘requires improvment’ to ‘inadequate’ and it was placed in special measures.
Managers say an “immediate and robust” action plan has been put in place and the home is already in a “good position” again following the inspection.
Following the visit, its rating for being effective and caring has dropped from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ and its rating for being safe and well-led remained at ‘requiring improvement’.
Only a partial inspection on how responsive the service was, was conducted – the previous ‘good’ rating of this area remains.
Conditions have been placed on the site to prevent more people being admitted unless permission is granted from the CQC.
There were 88 residents at the time of the inspection.
Inspectors found a range of care problems and people’s health being at risk due to their needs not being appropriately supported, pressure-related skin damage, residents choking on the wrong texture diets and a lack of teamwork between staff and their contact with external professionals.
Staff were found to sometimes not manage residents’ medicines well, alongside limited meaningful activity and involvement in care plans for residents.
The CQC’s report read: “People did not feel they were safe from abusive
care. We saw that people were at risk of neglect due to a lack of staff. The
management team had not taken sufficient action to keep people safe and refer to the external safeguarding team after people had been in altercations with each other. Safety risks to people were not managed well.
External health professionals had been contacted, but their advice was not always clearly recorded for staff to follow. There was not enough staff to support people with their needs. We found people calling for support and staff were not available to support them. Inspectors had to intervene to keep people safe.
The report did note that safe recruitment checks were in place to ensure the suitability of staff and the environment was mostly safe but there were issues around cleanliness.
Gregg Rielly, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said:
“When we inspected Braywood Gardens, it was concerning to see a lack of strong leadership. Our experience tells us that when a service isn’t well-led, it is less likely they’re able to meet people’s needs in the other areas we inspect, which is what we found here.
“The main issue was that leaders didn’t ensure there were enough staff to support the people living at the home which impacted the quality of care people were receiving.
“For example, we saw one person try to stand but was unsteady on their feet. As there wasn’t any staff around to help, our inspector had to help them to sit back down, or they would have likely fallen over. When we brought this up with staff, they said they were too busy to help.
“We have told Braywood Gardens where we expect to see rapid and widespread improvements and will continue to monitor them closely to keep people safe while this happens. We’ve also told them they can’t admit any new residents until these improvements are made. We will return to check on their progress and won’t hesitate to take further action if people are not receiving the care they have a right to expect.”
A spokesperson for Braywood Gardens said: “We can confirm that an immediate and robust action plan was put in place following the inspection undertaken by CQC. These findings were also identified by the provider and a managerial change was made which has instantly brought the service back to the high standard we have seen previously at Braywood Gardens.
“Co-working with Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) has been very productive and they too recognise the service is now providing the high level of care formerly seen.
“We are actively encouraging a return inspection visit from CQC where we expect the service to return to an overall Good rating.
“We take on board all findings raised by CQC and have worked tirelessly to instantly put these areas right. We are pleased to say the home is now in a very good position with exceptional leadership and staff.
“We thank our staff and the home manager for their efficient and professional response to see the service back to the expected standard and will work with all key stakeholders to see this maintained.”
