Urgent call from care inspectors for action

The Care Inspectorate has called for Abbey Lodge care home to make urgent improvements after an unannounced inspection.

In their latest visit to the Westwood facility, inspectors slammed the following areas as weak:

•Quality of care and support; •Quality of staffing; •Quality of management and leadership.

Quality of environment was rated adequate.

Inspectors called for an increase in staffing and said residents’ requests were not dealt with appropriately.

In the report, officers stated: “At times, especially in the dining room, staff failed to respond in an appropriate manner to residents’ requests or took no action at all to alleviate individuals stress and distressed behaviour.

“We observed that staff did not ensure that the footplates on wheelchairs were in use and, therefore, some individuals legs and feet were left unsupported while at the dining table.”

Other areas of concern highlighted were “minimum staff employed to meet only the basic human needs of the people who use the service”, and “residents’ choice did not appear to be at the forefront of all practice”.

Among requirements for change made by the Care Inspectorate were “ensuring an accurate review of each individuals dependency needs are calculated over a 24-hour period depending on their changing healthcare needs... which may require an increase in staffing at given times”.