A Stockport care home has been slammed for being unsafe and inadequate, just five months after it was given a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Rosemount Care Home Ltd, Edgeley, was criticised when it was visited on April 30 last year, and inspectors found that ‘very limited’ improvements had been made when they followed up on September 14.
The latest report revealed that one of the 12 dementia sufferers living in the home had sustained four falls with no action taken by the home to reduce the risk of injury, and that no barriers were in place to prevent people from falling out of windows.
“The service was not safe,” the inspector said.
“Two rooms had an offensive odour in them, one room had soiled bed rails, the carpet in one room was badly stained and some bedding was stained.
“Dates were not being recorded when creams and liquid medicines were opened and covert medicines were being given without an appropriate care plan in place.
“The cellar contained a number of fire hazards and one person did not receive their medicine as prescribed.”
Although the report found the house largely to be clean, when residents were questioned, one person said that, despite her requesting it twice, her bedding had not been changed for three weeks, leaving her feeling ‘itchy’.
Furthermore, two crash mats in bedrooms belonging to patients deemed likely to fall out of bed were ‘heavily soiled’, as was a ramp leading from the main lounge to the dining area.
Another of the residents commented that staff ‘were always late in giving out medicine’, whilst records show that one resident was not given their medicine at the time prescribed.
The report continued: “We checked the water temperature in a number of bedrooms and found that this exceeded 50 degrees.
“This places people who use the service at risk of being scalded by water that is above the recommended temperature.
“We looked in one linen cupboard and found hazardous substances were being stored in it. This cupboard was not locked and was accessible to people who used the service.”
Further concerns included an ‘offensive’ smell coming from fridges in the cellar and the absence of hand-washing facilities in the laundry – in which soiled laundry was handled.
Despite this, residents and their families were found to be generally happy with both the quantity and standard of staff, with carers described as ‘lovely’, ‘kind’ and ‘caring’.
Rosemount has not had a registered manager – one registered with the CQC – since November 2014, but the current manager told inspectors that they were liaising with district nurses in order to improve the service.
Management were not available for comment when contacted by MM.
Image courtesy of Horia Varlan, via Flickr, with thanks
