The toll of misery in homes across the country

INSPECTION reports seen by the Mail show how frail residents are suffering terribly in homes across the country.

In some cases, emergency inspections were prompted by families complaining about how their loved ones were being treated.

Here are some of the findings of CQC reports published this year into care homes found to be inadequate. They all remain open:

÷TWO residents died and the manager quit during a three-day inspection at the FOUR SEASONS BON ACCORD home for 31 elderly people with dementia in Hove, East Sussex. Inspectors reported concerns about some residents’ access to sufficient quantities of food and drink as two people had lost more than a stone in six months.

Some went without medicine for days at the home which has been in special measures since February.

Four Seasons said the manager at the time of inspection has resigned and there has been a ‘comprehensive programme of improvements’. The firm said the deaths were not suspicious. ÷At the MERRY HALL NURSING & RESI

DENTIAL care home in Fareham, Hampshire, a resident allegedly choked to death in March, triggering a police investigation and an emergency CQC inspection. Others at the home for 27 elderly people, some with dementia, were known to be at risk of choking but were allowed to eat and drink alone.

Merry Hall, owned by Buckland Care, has been in special measures since February 2016. A spokesman said ‘ new and experienced leadership is in place’ at the home. Hampshire police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

÷Inspectors were brought in at SOUTHWINDS, Burntwood, Staffordshire, after police launched an investigation into neglect at the home for 13 people with learning disabilities. One disabled resident was left in soiled clothes for two days in a row. Many were only given fresh clothes every five or six days.

Residents had to ask for toilet paper which was kept in an office. The home, which has been failing since July 2015 and in special measures since December 2016, is also chronically understaffed.

Southwinds, owned by a woman called Glenda Bundy, did not respond to requests for comment.

÷Staff at the TRALEE REST HOME for 21 elderly people saw dried faeces by the front door but did not clean it up. They used the same pair of latex gloves to clean the toilet, wash a sink and make a resi- dent’s bed. Inspectors said residents in the home in Whitstable, Kent, some of whom have dementia, ‘were not provided with a clean environment in which to live’.

Staff swore at residents and inspectors heard them talking about them as if they weren’t in the room. The home, owned by family-run Veecare Ltd, has been in special measures since June 2016 and was banned from taking new residents without CQC approval in September 2016. It did not respond to requests for comment. ÷One resident at LEIGHSWOOD went without painkillers for two days because the home for 22 elderly people in

‘In soiled clothes for two days’

Walsall, West Midlands, ran out. Another had torn skin on their hands after seven accidents at the home – but staff had no plans to protect them from further harm.

A resident was also left sitting in urine-soaked trousers, and another sat with their head in their hands for an hour before carers checked how they were feeling.

The home has been failing since March 2016 and in special measures since January but CQC inspectors revisited in June and said care was being improved. A spokesman for Leighswood, owned by Quality Homes Midlands, said

the manager has been replaced.

÷Residents with dementia were locked in their rooms overnight at ORCHARD MANOR

CARE HOME, Chester, and forced to wake up at 5.30am, inspectors were told.

Four staff members ignored an elderly resident who walked by them wearing soiled nightwear. And one with Parkinson’s was put at risk of scalding themselves when they were left alone with a hot cup of tea. Orchard Manor, a home for 93 elderly people with dementia owned by family company Fordent Properties, has been failing since August 2015. A spokesman for the firm said it has hired a new manager, adding that last month the home was revisited by inspectors who ‘praised the significant positive progress we have made’.

÷A resident at the HC-ONE NEWLANDS NURSING & RESI

DENTIAL HOME, Stockport, for 57 elderly people was given another person’s medicine. A second missed their daily dose of blood pressure tablets when nurses couldn’t find them. Inspectors described residents as ‘unsafe, at risk of being given the wrong medication’. The home has been in special measures since August 2016. An HC- One spokesman said it has implemented a ‘robust and detailed action plan’ and is ‘ working tirelessly’ to address the issues raised by the CQC.