Damning report into Distington care home

THE level of care received by people living in a Distington residential home was so poor that it was putting their health at risk, a report has revealed.

The Whitehaven News reported last month that Harriet’s, on Main Street, had been banned from taking on any new residents following the damning inspection report it received in April.

We can now reveal exactly what the inspectors found during their unannounced visit, including;

incorrect doses of medicines being administered;
medicines running out and not being replaced;
poor storage and disposal of medicine;
and a member of staff being employed who had not had a Criminal Records Bureau check.

“We looked at records for receipt, administration and disposal of medication and these were poor, leaving residents at risk of medication errors,” said the inspectors from the Care Quality Commission. “Records for administration contained mistakes. For example, one record was signed four times a day for nearly three weeks for a medicine that was only prescribed three times a day. This suggested that they had received an incorrect dose.

“The disposal of some medicines was poorly recorded so that some were unaccounted for.

“We did a stock check of a sample of medicines and this showed that, on occasions, medicines were not given as prescribed. For example, courses of antibiotics were not completed, leaving residents at risk of infection.

“We also saw that a resident received morphine three times in one day when they should have only received it twice.

“We looked at a sample of care plans for management of health care. Many of these gave little, and often no, information of the management and monitoring of health care issues. This means staff did not have adequate information to ensure residents’ health was managed well.

“The staff did not have any guidance for monitoring for adverse effects and for managing safely the frequent dosage changes that are needed. We saw that some medicines ran out so residents went without the treatment needed to keep them well. This included blood-thinning medicine, anti-depressants and pain-killers.

“Medicine storage was cramped and the fridge was too cold, with a temperature of -3c at the time of the inspection. Records showed that it was below freezing on three further occasions in the previous 10 days which could affect the medicines stores there.

“We checked on some recent recruitments and found one person working who had not had an up-to-date CRB check, two people where references had not been sought from their previous employer, and one person working with only one reference, from a personal friend. We also noted that new staff received the full induction in one day. There is too much information in the company induction for any person to understand their work role in one day.

“We noted that at least one person left in charge of the home had not attended manual handling, fire safety or safeguarding training. Fire drills have not been carried out at the frequency required.

“This home has a large volume of paper records but we judged that these systems were not bringing about efficiency or smooth operation of management systems. We also discovered that when new forms were introduced, staff were not using them. For example, bathing records showed infrequent bathing, but staff said they did bath people regularly. This can not be proven as the recording was poor.”

The inspectors made a number of recommendations to Harriet’s to bring about its improvement.

The care home, which is currently home to 32 residents, is owned by Durham-based Southern Cross Healthcare, which runs over 700 homes nationally.

Debbie Jallow, Southern Cross’ area manager, said: “Southern Cross has acted on the outcome of a recent CQC visit to Harriet’s care home, which identified areas for improvement and placed the home under temporary embargo.

“We take great pride in the standards of care provided to our residents and have worked with the CQC and Social Services to develop an action plan for improving the home.

“Management from Southern Cross Healthcare are meeting with CQC representatives and, as a result of improvements in the home, we very much hope the embargo will be lifted.”