Cambridgeshire Families Unaware Of Care Failings
Relatives of elderly residents at a care home in Cambridgeshire have said they were not told about low inspection results and falling standards of care.
The Hillings in Eaton Socon, received a warning letter from the Commission for Social Care Inspection in November.
The home, owned by Healthcare Homes, has a contract with Cambridgeshire County Council, which said it would now be working with the management company.
Residents’ families told the BBC they only recently become aware of problems.
The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) report over November and December showed some parts of the building had smelled rotten, that it was unhygenic and unpleasant and at one stage the home had run out of incontinence pads.
One elderly resident with dementia had been found to have fallen more than 17 times and no risk or full assessment had been made.
A number of residents were in an unkempt state and one appeared not to have eaten for five days.
From April, inspection reports for care homes will be available in league tables but at the moment it is up to individuals to research a care home’s quality.
A relative of a resident at The Hillings, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC: “When you have a relative in care, you expect, as you would in a hospital, that they’re going to be looked after and if something goes wrong you expect to be told about it.
“It would have been a lot better if they had been honest in November and said ‘well we have got problems, we are addressing them’ – it’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen like that, they should communicate with us.”
‘Shortcomings rectified’
Problems are thought to have begun when The Hillings volunteered to take in seven extra residents when the Hunters Down Care home, near Huntingdon, closed last summer.
In a statement, a CSCI spokesman said it has had a meeting with the owners and ordered an action plan on how improvements were going to be made for the safety and wellbeing of the residents.
“We have had a commitment from the provider to improve, but if we don’t see significant and sustained improvements, we will not hesitate to take further action,” the spokesman said.
Richard Clough, Healthcare Homes Group, said: “All the shortcomings have been rectified as of today.
“We’ve in fact appointed a quality development team, which is our regional manager, two experienced home managers, a HR consultant and a former CSCI [Commission for Social; Care Inspection] inspector.”
