THE SHAMING OF UK’S CARE HOMES
Official warnings for neglect of elderly and vulnerable soar 43% in a single year
A RECORD number of care homes and hospitals were issued with official warnings last year after the health watchdog uncovered ‘unacceptable’ standards of care for the most vulnerable.
Inspectors issued 910 ‘warning notices’ prompted by examples of pensioners forced to sleep in dirty beds, use dirty commodes and live in unheated rooms over the winter.
Warning notices are issued when care is so bad that the law is not being complied with. They order institutions to improve on pain of closure or prosecution. The Care Quality Commission’s annual report reveals the number of warnings leapt by 43 per cent in a year to more than 17 a week.
The vast majority of the failings were exposed in residential care, amid concerns that poor standards in these institutions are often overlooked because they do not receive the same scrutiny as hospitals.
One expert described the catalogue of failings as the ‘Keogh report for care homes’, likening it to NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh’s shocking review of 14 hospital trusts with higher than expected death rates. CQC on-the-spot inspections found examples of: Pensioners forced to sleep in unheated rooms over the winter; Residents ignored when they were in visible pain; Broken call bells meaning residents could not get help with going to the toilet; Residents forced to sleep in dirty beds and use filthy commodes; Staff falsifying medical records; Unexplained injuries not investigated by staff and allegations of abuse not reported; and Medication being given at the wrong times and doses being missed. Details of the warning notices contained in the CQC’s 2012/13 report revealed 910 warning notices had been issued, up from 638 the year before.
Of these, 818 were in adult social care – meaning care homes as well as care in pensioners’ own homes. The remaining warnings were issued to other healthcare institutions, including hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulances.
It is not known whether the rise is down to an increase in poor standards, or the fact that
DIGNITY FOR THE ELDERLY
the CQC is getting better at rooting out poor care.
Last night Ros Altmann, a former Treasury adviser on older people’s issues, said: ‘This catalogue of failings really does remind one of the Keogh report in hospitals. It’s the Keogh report for care homes.
‘Jeremy Hunt has come down hard on poor standards in hospitals and he needs to do the same for care homes.
‘In a way this is even more important, because residents in care homes are usually there forever, while patients are in hospitals for shorter times.
‘It is so deeply worrying that we seem to have a system that seems to be sweeping poor care under the carpet rather than dealing with it properly.
‘We have a crisis in the care home sector. We are trying to provide care on the cheap, and as these shocking examples show, that can’t go on.’
Michelle Mitchell, charity director general of Age UK, said: ‘Providing safe and dignified services must be the first priority of any organisation and there must be a zero-tolerance attitude to poor, neglectful care whether in a hospital or care home.’ The increased number of warnings comes after the CQC faced serious concerns over its inspection methods, which have allowed poor care to go unchallenged.
In July former CQC bosses were accused of a cover-up over maternity deaths at hospitals in University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay trust. A spokesman for the CQC said: ‘The CQC’s new chief inspector of adult social care, Andrea Sutcliffe, will lead plans for a new regulatory approach when she joins and she will be calling on the public, staff and people providing services to give their views on how regulation should change, when we go out to consultation.
‘These plans will set a clear bar below which no provider must fall without facing serious consequences. It will be a tougher more effective approach.’