BRITAIN’S WORST CARE HOMES
Watchdog blasts 14 bosses over ‘unsafe’ treatment of elderly
SOME of the worst care homes have been slated for keeping residents in unsafe conditions.
Watchdogs named establishments where people were given no showers or baths for up to seven weeks.
Solicitor Sarah Scully said of the 14: “Some of the failings are appalling.” DEFENCELESS Care home resident
ELDERLY care home residents are being left in urine-soaked clothes, filthy beds and with no baths or showers for weeks on end, it has been revealed.
Fourteen establishments with the worst Care Quality Commission ratings have been named in a review of how Britain’s pensioners are treated.
All those listed were classified as unsafe, uncaring, irresponsible and badly led. And they faced closure unless they significantly improved over the next six months, amid fears residents are at risk.
Among them was Woolton Manor Care Home in Liverpool, where the independent inspectors found residents went up to seven weeks without a bath or shower.
Highcroft Manor, in Towcester, Northants, was also named in the review of CQC reports from the past year. Here, “rooms, bedding and flooring were dirty” and one resident lost 6% of body weight in a week. Clover House, in Halifax, West Yorks, was no better. Residents had dirty fingernails and torn clothes.
At Laverstock Care Centre, in Salisbury, Wilts, one person was found wearing the previous day’s clothes which were wet “with a strong odour of urine”.
Hudgell Solicitors examined the CQC inspection reports of 250 care homes rated inadequate. It found 14 were inadequate in all five areas rated, which are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Solicitor Sarah Scully said: “Some failings are appalling. They paint a frightening picture of what happens in poorly run care facilities.
“People are leaving loved ones in care homes where medication is not being given as prescribed, people are at risk of choking as they are not being served the right food.
“Poor and neglectful care, combined with staff carrying out roles they have not had specific training for, is a recipe for disaster. These residents are being placed at risk, it is as simple as that.”
Only three of the 14 care homes would comment. Woolton Manor claimed: “The case is based on a personal agenda and racism as the reports have been fabricated.”
Meadow View at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, criticised for being unclean, said: “We are working hard to make things better.”
And Abbotsford Nursing Home in Manchester, where residents lost weight, said after legal action it is waiting a new inspection.
Maddy Jobson, 53, from Beverley, East Yorkshire, whose mother Freda was neglected by a care home – not on the list of 14 – before her death in April, said: “This report illustrates that things still haven’t changed.”
The CQC’s Andrea Sutcliffe insisted “most care services in England are providing good, safe care”. But she added: “The public need to be reassured that if there are any problems, these are being identified and tackled.”