Rochdale Council are hoping to move the remaining residents of a care home that left patients in soiled clothing into alternative accommodation in the coming weeks.
MM revealed last week that vulnerable dementia and mental health patients at Parklands House care home were being forced to move after a scathing Care Quality Commission report deemed them at risk.
During an investigation last October, inspectors found ‘a strong, offensive odour’ that could be smelled from outside the home, as well as unlocked boxes of medication left where residents, staff, and visitors could have taken them.
The process of removing patients from the troubled home began in October, with only four now remaining.
Sheila Downey, Director of Adult Care at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The council shares the CQC’s concerns about the quality of care being provided at Parklands and as result of these concerns, we suspended new referrals to this home in June last year.
“We also put in place an action plan and increased our inspections to help improve standards at the home.
“It has now become clear that Parklands is not reaching the high standard of care we expect for our residents and we have moved 14 people to alternative accommodation since October.
“We are working closely with the four remaining residents placed by Rochdale Borough Council and are hoping that they will also be settled in new accommodation in the next few weeks.”
Several people at the care home were found wearing soiled clothing, while the report also identified a danger that people could be cared for by staff ‘unsuitable to work with vulnerable people’.
Parklands House currently has no registered manager and the report found that only 15 of 48 staff employed had completed safeguarding adults training from 2010-14.
There were also failings to provide people with the correct prescribed consistency of fluid, placing them at risk of choking, and to provide evidence of action taken to address two cases of severe weight loss.
Similar problems had been identified in two previous inspections in June and August last year.
Debbie Westhead, the CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North said: “We found that the care provided at Parklands House Care Home fell significantly short of what we – and the people who live there – should be able to expect.
“This is especially disappointing given that we have previously warned Eldercare (Halifax) Limited that the home was providing substandard care.
“People deserve to be cared for in services which are safe, effective, caring, responsive to their needs, and well led. We are currently considering what further action we need to take here to make sure that people receive the care and support they deserve.”
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