Essex Care Home rated 'inadequate' and put into special measures

A “poorly maintained” Essex care home has been graded inadequate in a CQC report, which highlighted issues of cleanliness and a lack of trained staff available at key times to administer medicines to patients safely.

Hailey House in Maldon was given the lowest rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced inspection which ended on May 31. At the last inspection in 2018, the home was rated as ‘good’.

CQC inspectors made two site visits after concerns were raised regarding risk and medicine management, staffing levels and the safety and sanitation of the building.

On the NHS website, the home is described as a 20-bed residential facility for elderly people. When inspectors made visits on May 11 and May 17, there were 15 people living in the property.

The report also noted that at the time of the inspections Hailey House did not have a registered manager in post, though the local authority had provided a temporary manager to support the service.

Although Hailey House is registered as a care home without nursing care, the report identified that residents’ prescribed medicines “were not always being stored safely in line with manufacturers recommendations”, in addition to best practices regarding dispensing and administering medicines not being followed.

It was noted: ” Appropriately trained staff were not always available at times when people may need prescribed or ‘as required’ (PRN) medicines.

“The service lacked staff trained to administer medicines between 10pm and 7:30am. People did not have access to their medicines in a timely way between these times as no staff were competent and trained to administer them.” This included one resident receiving end-of-life care.

Notes on the needs of two other residents were also recorded as being “severely limited”, meaning staff would not have been well-informed to cater to their personal requirements.

Communal areas were reportedly “cluttered, some dirty and in need of maintenance.

The report added: “There was an ongoing pest control problem, which staff told us made it very difficult to keep the kitchen clean”.

Additionally, tiles on the wall of the kitchen were “falling off”, with wires on the oven exposed and food not always stored at the correct temperature.

The maintenance issues flagged by the report included two upstairs bathrooms which were out of order, meaning all 15 residents were required to share the same downstairs bathroom. To access this, however, they had to pass through the communal lounge. In turn, this meant “people’s privacy, dignity and independence was not always promoted”.

A lack of staff caused care workers to cover for the home’s cook, who only worked two days per week and alternate weekends. This was on top of laundry management and their usual care duties.

One resident told the inspectors that they would have liked to make use of the garden at Hailey House, but could not due to the decking area having become “dirty and unusable”.

They said: “I would love to go out in the garden and plant some flowers, but it’s not nice so not worth going out there.”

A relative said: “(The resident) loved their garden and it is such a disappointment that the home has not met their wishes and one of their only interests.”

As well as the garden, the CQC report identified that the home’s exterior required extensive repairs. Inspectors reported seeing rotting window frames, water pipes “held up together with tape”, and a leak from the washing machines underneath the laundry room.

Despite the issues raised, staff were observed as “kind, caring and attentive”, in particular talking about residents receiving palliative care “with compassion and sensitivity”.

Hailey House has been placed in special measures, and a further inspection will be undertaken in six months. For adult social care services, the maximum time in special measures is no longer than 12 months. If significant changes have not been implemented in this window, the home will be prevented from operating or have to comply with stringent conditions.

The Hailey House management team did not wish to comment on the CQC report when approached by the LDRS.