Home where residents felt unsafe ‘improving’

CITY FACILITY RATED INADEQUATE

INSPECTION VISIT: Bodnant House, where residents had called police concerned about their own safety

THE manager of a care home where residents called the police because they felt unsafe says she is determined to make improvements.

Nicky Dhir had only started as manager of Bodnant House, a residential home in Leicester for adults with a learning disability, autistic spectrum disorders or mental health needs, a week before inspectors arrived.

She said: “I can’t comment on the home before I started but what I will say is I’m determined to make improvements and there has already been a lot of progress.”

A team from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited the Bodnant Avenue home in July and rated it inadequate.

In their report, inspectors said: “People and their relatives did not feel Bodnant House was a safe place to live.

“One person said ‘staff deliberately provoke situations’ and then followed this statement by adding, ‘staff will try and restrain instead of talking with people properly.’”

The CQC said physical intervention techniques were not always carried out safely and in line with best practice.

One staff member told inspectors they had to restrain a person on their own on one occasion. “This placed people at risk of harm,” the CQC said.

Care plans and incident reporting were another cause for concern.

In a meeting prior to the inspection, four of the home’s eight residents had said they were unhappy living there.

Communication was found to be “very poor”. One person’s family said their relative had been taken to hospital and staff had not told them.

The inspection team found terminology used in the minutes of the staff meetings to be “unprofessional and derogatory about people”.

Inspectors also said there were no clear systems to see what actions had taken place following a safeguarding incident and “opportunities to learn from incidents were missed”.

Staffing issues meant people were placed at potential risk. Recruitment processes and procedures were not followed and appropriate pre-employment checks had not been carried out.

“The provider had failed to ensure staff were recruited safely, which put people at risk of receiving care from staff who were not suitable to work with vulnerable people,” the report said.

However, staff used PPE appropriately and cleaned every two hours, in line with Covid-19 guidelines.

Ms Dhir said: “We are working with the council and other authorities to make improvements. I know this won’t happen overnight but we are headed in the right direction.”

Inspectors will within six months. revisit the home