Nursing home is told to improve
JON MACPHERSON
ANURSING home, which has gone into administration, has been told to improve by inspectors - just two years after it was given a clean bill of health.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Mapleford Nursing Home in Huncoat following ‘concerns about levels of hygiene’ and found the home environment ‘smelled stale and unclean’.
The facility on Bolton Avenue provides nursing and personal care for up to 54 people, including older people, younger adults, people with mental ill health and people living with dementia.
Administrators were appointed last month and say that the managers at the time of the inspection are no longer involved in the running of the home.
They are running the home withe hope of selling it as a going concern.
Inspectors rated the care
home as ‘requiring improvement’ in four out of the five key areas, including safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership, and ‘good’ in care.
At their previous inspection in 2017 Mapleford was rated ‘good’ in all areas.
In a report, the CQC said: “This inspection was brought forward due to information of concern received about the home.
“During this inspection we identified breaches in relation to the safety of the premises, the provider’s failure to ensure staff had the skills to provide people with safe care and the provider’s failure to monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service
People were happy with the care and support provided by the service. However, we found a number of areas that needed to be improved.
“The provider had not ensured safety checks of the home environment were being completed regularly or that equipment had been inspected or serviced as often as necessary.
“Staff had not reviewed people’s risk assessments in line with the provider’s timescales and people’s emergency evacuation plans did not reflect the support they would need from staff if they had to be evacuated from the home.
“People were happy with staffing levels at the home. However, the service was short of permanent staff and relied heavily on agency staff during the day and at night.”
Inspectors said community professionals gave ‘mixed feedback’ about the home and the care staff provided and some said they would ‘not be happy for a family member to live at the home due to inconsistencies in the standards of care provided’.
The CQC said people at the care home ‘liked the staff who supported them’ and they were ‘kind and treated them with respect’.
The report added: “Staff supported people with their healthcare needs and referred people to community professionals when they needed extra support.
“Staff considered people’s diversity and provided people with any support they needed with their communication needs.
Kerry Bailey and Sarah Rayment, of BDO LLP were appointed Joint Administrators of Mapleford (Nursing Home) Limited (‘Mapleford’) and its parent company, Pauls Care Services Limited last month.
The Joint Administrators are continuing to trade Mapleford with a view to effecting a sale of the business as a going concern.
A specialist care home management company, Caresolve Limited, have been appointed by the Joint Administrators to assist in the operating of Mapleford.
A BDO spokesperson said: “At the time of the inspection by the Care Quality Commission, Mapleford (Nursing Home) Limited was under control of its previous management, who are now no longer involved in the running of the care home.
“Since then, Kerry Bailey and Sarah Rayment of BDO LLP have been appointed Joint Administrators and have appointed experienced care-home specialists, CareSolve, to assist in the trading of the care home and to take action to improve standards of care whilst the Joint Administrators are exploring a potential sale of the business as a going concern.”