‘Safety at risk’ at inadequate care home

A CARE home where residents’ safety was found to be at risk and staff had no time for breaks could have its registration revoked if it does not make required improvements.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said Livesey Lodge Care Home, which is in special measures, has issues with staffing levels, medicines being missed and wrongly recorded and poor management.

Two inspectors visited the Sapcote home in October and November after concerns about the health, safety and wellbeing of people using the service were reported.

They set out to answer two questions: is the service safe? And is the service well-led? A report recorded both areas as inadequate.

A warning notice had been issued after a visit to the home in May. When inspectors returned they found the provider had made some changes, but overall there was “little improvement”.

The home said it has made good progress since the last visit and addressed issues raised.

Inspectors spoke to four residents, two relatives, the registered manager, deputy manager and four staff.

They also looked at care records and risk assessments.

Inspectors witnessed residents being left unsupervised for up to 15 minutes. There were no call bells for residents and an inspector witnessed a safeguarding incident.

Radiators in communal areas were uncovered and hot to touch.

Furniture was close to radiators in residents’ rooms posing a risk of severe burns if a resident were to fall and get trapped.

Water temperatures were flagged as an issue. An inspector found bath taps ran cold or lukewarm. The next day, water in an assisted bathroom was at 52C despite a sign next to the bath stating it should not exceed 34C.

As one person was moved using a hoist: “The person became very distressed as staff attempted to put the sling in place and staff were struggling to fit the sling in the correct position.

“Staff did not offer any reassurance or explanation. Once the person was in the hoist, staff raised the person excessively high and a distance of over one metre in order to transfer the person to a wheelchair.

“Staff did not demonstrate a good understanding of safe transfers and the correct position of equipment.

“We saw staff move the person in their wheelchair backwards from the room. There were no footplates on the wheelchair which resulted in feet being dragged on the ground.”

One patient who needed eye drops did not receive the medication for two days because the drops were “lost”.

The report said this resulted in “very sore and uncomfortable eyes”.

On one day, inspectors had to “intervene” to stop staff signing records about medication tively.

The home is registered for up to 24 people. At the time of the inspection there were 20 people there.

Ally Toorabally, the service provider, said: “We had a meeting with the CQC to address some of the concerns raised.

“The monitoring retrospec- of water temperatures and radiators has been dealt with now. Radiator covers have been installed in all of the rooms occupied by residents.

“Staffing has been allocated according to residents’ needs and we’ve addressed the issue of staff not having time to take breaks.

“There’s adequate staff and we’re supplying evidence of that to the CQC on a weekly basis.

“I’m happy with the progress we’ve achieved since the visit and I am in the process of requesting the CQC visits again.

“We hope when they return they will see that we have addressed the concerns and made progress.”