A COVENTRY care home has been placed in special measures after inspectors found residents were not receiving a safe or caring service on account of staff shortages.
Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the Minster Rest Home on Westminster Road ‘inadequate’ and has given management and staff at the home six months to make ‘significant improvements’ or face closure.
On inspection of the Earlsdon care home, which accommodates 19 elderly residents, the CQC found staff had limited knowledge of safeguarding people from abuse, staff training was not up-to-date and that residents did not feel well cared for.
Inspectors visited the home, unannounced, on three dates earlier this year and found it to be understaffed – with carers having to divide their time between supporting residents and performing domestic, laundry and catering duties.
The report, compiled after speaking with staff, residents, and visitors, found the home to be ‘inadequate’ in all five of the key areas examined – the safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership of the services.
Residents told inspectors staff were always busy, making them feel their needs were not met, with one commenting: “I don’t like it (the home); I would sooner be in prison.”
In one instance, inspectors witnessed a member of staff leave a person they were assisting to eat their lunch to respond to a call bell being activated in another area of the home.
The resident had not finished their meal and it was left to go cold, without them receiving further support to finish it.
Training and support for staff was also found to be lacking – with a new member of staff saying they had been ‘put on the rota and started’ without a formal induction programme.
This, in turn, meant staff did not always follow safe infection control procedures – including one instance where inspectors observed a staff member delivered personal care to a resident, assisted another person and then walked downstairs to assist people with their lunch without removing their gloves and apron.
Medicine records were not sufficiently clear and there was no fire risk assessment for the home nor any evacuation plans of how residents would be safely removed from the building in the event of a fire.
When establishing whether the service was caring, inspectors were given a tour of the building where they found a deaf and blind resident lying in bed – not knowing that their hearing aids were sat in a box on a nearby chest of drawers.
Inspectors also spoke to seven residents at the home, who said they were not involved in their care planning – resulting in some feeling like they were not listened to.
Residents were given little choice in their meals and given limited portion sizes – causing one person to comment: “At teatime you get one sandwich, one slice of bread, I am hungry all of the time.”
The CQC will now closely monitor Minster Rest Home and review the service again in the next six months.
