Inspectors tell care service to improve

A RUNCORN care service has been told to improve after inspectors could not find evidence of accidents being logged.

Caring Hands on Church Street was given a rating of ‘requires improvement’ by the regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC said the company has 19 clients over 65 years of age with a ‘broad spectrum of needs’ and operates in Halton, Warrington and parts of Cheshire.

The inspector cited concerns including that an accidents and incidents log could not be located, ‘no evidence’ could be found that an assessment of service users’ needs had been carried out and there were gripes about carers’ arriving at the right time with clients.

They said that files contained ‘minimal information’ on clients’ needs and constituted a breach of regulations, as did Caring Hands’ inability to produce evidence that medication records and practices were being monitored. No complaints were made to inspectors during the visit. The CQC said one complaint had been made against the service in the last 12 months and was being investigated and the last prior to that was in 2014.

Caring Hands was given a ‘requires improvement’ rating overall and the same rating in safety, responsiveness and leadership.

It was graded ‘good’ for effectiveness and how caring it was, with service users saying they were treated with dignity and respect by staff.

The CQC has provided an action plan for Caring Hands over how it can rectify its regulations breaches.

Discussing concerns over safety, the inspector said: “Management information regarding accidents and incidents and missed visits could not be located to enable an analysis of incidents.

“People were not adequately protected from the risks associated with unsafe medicines management as staff did not have access to a list of medicines prescribed to each person.”