Nine staff lose their jobs as 70-bed Sway nursing home is heavily criticised

We can turn it around. That’s the pledge being made by the owners of a Hampshire nursing home where nine staff have lost their jobs after it received a zero rating from independent inspectors.

The 70-bed Birchy Hill home in Sway is owned by Angel PLC, which has brought in a new management team.

It follows a highly critical report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which said elderly patients with mental health problems were in the hands of inadequately trained and poorly supervised staff.

The report said: “Staff are not thoroughly checked before they work in the home and don’t receive the training they need to do their job.

“This means people are not protected by the home’s recruitment procedures and staff do not receive training to develop the skills they need to provide the right care for people.”

The report said training records were out of date, making it difficult for the manager to tell which staff needed to attend new courses.

It added: “The management and quality assurance systems in the home are ineffective and have placed people at risk of their health and personal care needs not being met.

“There are good systems to investigate and respond to complaints.

“However, the home does not follow the correct procedures to report abuse issues and not all staff are suitably trained in the safeguarding procedures. This increases the risk that people will not be protected from abuse.”

The report also criticised the quality of care plans, saying they were generic and failed to identify the needs of individual residents.

It added: “Medicines that can be misused, known as controlled drugs, were not being stored correctly.

“Records of the use of controlled drugs were being made in a drugs register in line with best practice guidelines. These records were, however, not well kept.”

The home’s new care director is Patrick Smith, a former care home inspector who has worked in the industry for 34 years.

Mr Smith said he had been forced to make tough decisions, which included making four nurses and five care assistants redundant.

He added: “It’s been very difficult but I feel the situation is improving and the reflections of other people, including inspectors, relatives and staff, show that’s a view shared by them.”

Birchy Hill is the second New Forest nursing home to be given a zero rating by the CQC.

Last month pensioners were moved out of the Merrymore home in Barton-on-Sea after inspectors criticised almost every aspect of the care they received.