Care home group’s apology to residents follows damning report

Avalon Park Care Home Dove St Oldham

AN Oldham care home has issued a humbling apology for letting its residents down after being damned in an inspection report.

Avalon Park Nursing Home, in Dove Street, Salem, was rated as “inadequate”, by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and placed in special measures after an inspection found 11 health and social care breaches, including moving call bells out of the reach of residents, hygiene problems and medicines left unsecured.

The home, which at the time of its inspection provided accommodation for up to 60 people requiring personal or nursing care, was rated as “inadequate”, the lowest category, in four of the five key inspection areas — safety, care, effectiveness and leadership.

A spokesman for the home, which is operated by HC-One, said: “The standard of care at the home has been unacceptable, and we have sincerely apologised to residents and their loved ones.

“There have been deep-rooted and persistent problems at the home for some time, and we have always been open about the challenges we are working to overcome. The feedback from the CQC inspection in November is serious and since this time we have continued to do everything possible to make urgent improvements.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was recruiting high-calibre managers with the skills and experience needed to turn things around, despite significant efforts and support from across the organisation.”

They added that new and experienced leadership is now in place and progress has been made since the inspection, including bringing in experts to re-train staff and ensure standards are improved.

The inspection report stated: “Our observations during the inspection showed that staff were mostly caring and reassuring in their interactions with people in Avalon Park.

“However we observed some staff showed a lack of respect towards people.”

One staff member was loudly heard saying “Oh stop buzzing” and laughed when questioned by the inspection team after a resident told inspectors: “I have never seen a buzzer (call bell) in the lounge, one night they moved my buzzer out of the way so I couldn’t buzz.”

Activity records from the inspection which took place in November, also documented derogatory comments about residents who were “not easy to please”.

The home, which was rated as “requires Improvement” at its last inspection in January, 2015, was also criticised for its handling of medicines, including a lack of medication care plan for one person.

Inspectors were easily able to gain access to a treatment room in the home as the code for access was written on the door frame.

The inspectors said: “We observed the room to be dirty and untidy, with new medications left on the floor awaiting sorting and putting away.

“The floor was dirty and dusty with three capsules/tablets discarded.

“The waste medicines container was over-flowing with a number of prescribed medications sitting on top, including antibiotics and beta blockers.

“The sharps container was overfollowing with dangerous sharps visible and exposed.”

Standards of cleanliness and hygiene in some areas was also found to be poor including an unpleasant odour on the first floor and an “overall stale smell” throughout the home.

Furniture including dining chairs and soft furnishings also required a deep cleaning to ensure they were suitable for use.

The inspectors also observed low staffing levels during busy periods, with residents arguing that staffing levels needed to be improved.

Staff had also not received the necessary induction, training, supervision or appraisal to help ensure they were supported to deliver effective care.

Care records were not always fully completed or up to date and service users told inspectors that they had “limited opportunities” to comment on the care and quality of care they received.

However the home was praised by other professionals who visited the including a dietician and community social worker and inspectors saw some positive comments from family members.

The spokesman for HC-One stressed: “The home is currently being supported by our quality and assurance team, our learning and development team, our medicines management team, and our nutrition team, who will continue to work with the home until we get things right.

“The home has struggled to recruit nurses given the national shortage.

“For this reason we took the decision to refocus the home to only provide residential and dementia care, and close the nursing unit.”

They added that, working with Oldham Council and Oldham NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, all affected nursing residents were moved to new homes of their choice.

“This was not an easy decision to take, but we did it with the best interests of our residents in mind, and ensured there was a smooth transition,” they continued.

“We are committed to building on standards, and will be investing £100,000 in a refurbishment programme later this year. “We know we have not delivered care to the high standards we seek, and that residents and their loved ones have rightly felt frustrated by this.

“We will not rest until we are providing the high quality kind care we all want for residents.

“We are deeply sorry we have not got things right, addressing this is a top priority at every level of our organisation.”

The CQC placed the home in special measures, which means it will be inspected again within six months.

Warning notices were sent to the home requiring actions to be completed by June 22. If insufficient improvements have been made when inspectors next visit, the CQC will take action in line with enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.