Care home in special measures after ‘significant’ decline in quality of care
A care home has been rated inadequate and placed in special measures following an inspection by watchdogs.
Burrswood Care Home (pictured) in Bury, Greater Manchester, was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in August, prompted by concerns received from relatives, local intelligence and the CQC’S own risk analysis regarding pressure wound care, staffing levels, management of falls and leadership.
The home, which is run by Advinia Care Homes Limited, provides personal and nursing care to a maximum of 125 people.
Alison Chilton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said: “When we inspected Burrswood Care Home, it was concerning to see such a significant deterioration in the quality of care being provided.
“Leaders need to prioritise making urgent improvements, particularly regarding how the service is run, to ensure people’s needs are properly met.
“It was very concerning that there had been a systemic failure of leadership and management across all areas. This had caused a deep sense of mistrust between staff and management and led to a closed toxic culture which led to poor quality care.
“For example, the management of incidents, including falls, wasn’t safe.
“We identified at least six examples where an incident hadn’t been referred to the local authority safeguarding team, and CQC hadn’t been notified either.
“The provision of activities and opportunities for people to follow their interests was poor. This was despite the provider charging an additional weekly fee for activities which is totally unacceptable.”
The CQC inspection found while some staff were caring and well intentioned, others appeared disinterested.
Inspectors found induction, training and development of staff was poor and there was a lack of qualified nursing staff with the relevant professional training, skills, and experience to effectively deliver care to people living with complex advanced dementia.
There was also found to be too much of an inward focus and links with the local community were virtually non-existent.
The report said some people’s health was placed at risk of harm because their medicines were unavailable or out of stock.
At the time of the inspection, the allocated catering budget equated to less than £5 per person per day, which staff told inspectors made it difficult to provide people with three meals a day as well as a supper and adequate drinks and snacks throughout the day.
Advinia operates 22 care homes in England and 13 in Scotland, with around 2,800 beds in total, and employs 3,000 staff, according to the firm’s company accounts.
It has a turnover of £101 million, with 80% of revenues coming from taxpayers through local authorities and local health care bodies.
Advinia currently advertises kitchen and housekeeping jobs on its website at the minimum wage rate of £10.42 per hour.
Special measures means Burrswood Care Home will be kept under close review with a re-inspection to check for significant improvements, the CQC said.
A spokesperson for the care home said: “The safety and wellbeing of our residents is our highest priority, and we are committed to providing the very highest quality care at Burrswood Care Home.
“We are of course hugely disappointed with the findings of the most recent Care Quality Commission report into the service.
“The senior leadership team have already formulated and implemented a robust action plan to address the relevant concerns and we are confident that the service is already feeling the benefit of these changes.
“We have long known that the care needs of many residents had increased, and we had raised this issue with the local authority to urge them to provide more funding so the appropriate level of care could be provided. Sadly, this was not forthcoming, despite repeated requests. We believe this lack of funding was a contributing factor to this report.
“As a team we remain committed to our residents, and their families, and we thank them for their patience during this time.”
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