Inspectors issue West Lothian care home with urgent improvement notice

A care home for older people in Bathgate must make urgent improvements in the care experienced by vulnerable residents, inspectors have said.

The Care Inspectorate has served a formal Improvement Notice on Meadowvale Care Home (pictured) following an inspection which raised serious concerns.

The notice lists three areas which require urgent improvement.

These include ensuring that residents experience care and support that meets their needs and is right for them. In particular, this must include ensuring consistent, good quality and effective management and leadership to guide and direct staff working across the service and improve the quality of care experienced by residents.

They must also ensure that at all times there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified and competent staff working in and deployed across the service.

And they must ensure residents consistently receive sufficient care and support to prevent skin damage and to minimise the risk of development of pressure ulcers.

In particular, where there is skin damage, appropriate care must be delivered to assist in wound healing to prevent residents suffering unnecessary distress.

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: “The Improvement Notice we have issued clearly lays out the improvements we must see so that the care experienced by residents improves quickly.

“We will visit this care home again soon to check on progress and if we are not satisfied that the matters raised are being addressed urgently, we will not hesitate to take further action.”

The improvement notice is available here.

Picture (c) Google Maps.