Management at West Berkshire council run care home labelled 'inadequate'
And safety at the Birchwood Care Home also requires improvement according to the Care Quality Commission, which inspected it in February
Management at a Newbury care home has been labelled inadequate by health officials.
The home is a council run residential care home providing personal and nursing to 49 people aged 65 and over.
Some people at the care home on Birchwood Road are living with dementia, physical disabilities or sensory impairments.
Leadership, management and governance systems were deemed poor and did not demonstrate the service was well led, people were safe, or their care and support needs were being consistently met, the report said.
It added that systems in place to oversee the service and ensure compliance with the fundamental standards were not always effective and they did not enable the manager and provider to identify when their legal responsibilities were not being met.
The health, safety and welfare of people using the service were not always managed effectively and required records were not always kept or available, the inspection found.
It also said risks to people were not always regularly reviewed to enable staff to provide safe care and medicines were not managed safely.
People were placed at risk of harm due to a lack of information for staff about how to manage people’s medicines, it added. And audits of people’s medicines were not completed consistently and not used effectively to address errors and omissions, it found.
Suitably qualified staff were not always deployed to administer people’s medicines safely and incidents and accidents were not analysed to prevent recurrences and keep people safe, the report noted.
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about medicines, infection control, and the management of the service.
West Berkshire Council which runs the home says it has been in touch to advise residents of the home and their families of the outcome of the inspection, and to reassure them that the areas highlighted in the report will be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Joanne Stewart, West Berkshire’s Executive Member for Adult Social Care said:
“We have a commitment to provide the highest standards of care and have now put a clear plan of action in place and will be working closely with the Care Quality Commission to ensure the necessary changes are implemented.”
"The safety of our clients and staff is always our priority, and we have full confidence that all areas highlighted are being addressed as a matter of urgency.”
A new manager has recently been appointed to the Responsive Care Provider Service, which includes our Care Homes, and they will be working alongside staff at Birchwood Care Home to ensure the action plan is implemented effectively.