Disgraced care home shut down for neglect is allowed to reopen
Officials from the Care Quality Commission (CQC)said bosses at The Old Village School Nursing Home in Marston Moretaine should be ashamed of themselves after deteriorating care conditions were discovered last year.
Inspectors said care home bosses had let down patients and their report revealed that residents were not fed properly, call bells were disconnected at night and patients were left out in the cold for hours.
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One elderly person, who required continuous oxygen, was found blue and distressed because a night nurse had failed to replace an empty oxygen cylinder. Another patient was left in an armchair for eight hours and was desperate to go to the toilet.
The care home was closed in August following emergency court action after the facility failed to improve but, after winning an appeal, it will reopen in March.
CQC chief inspector of adult care Andrea Sutcliffe said: “The shocking examples of poor care my inspectors found at The Old Village School last summer were utterly dreadful. This is why we took immediate action to protect the people using the service from harm.
“The provider appealed our decision and I am glad that in reaching its conclusion the tribunal has clearly stated its support for the action we took at the time to immediately stop services being provided. Indeed, the tribunal judge called the failures we uncovered ‘life-threatening’.
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“The tribunal judge has allowed the appeal which means that The Old Village School Nursing Home can re-open. However, the tribunal judge has imposed a number of very strict conditions that the provider must adhere to, which we support fully.
“I will not tolerate any instances of failing care. I expect Old Village Care Limited to use this opportunity to live up to the promises it made to the tribunal and drastically improve its services to provide its residents with the safe, high quality and compassionate care they deserve. They should be under no illusion that if they fail to do so, then we will take further action.”
The care home is undergoing a full refurbishment before reopening including a specialist dementia unit and new communal spaces.
A spokesman for the facility said; “We have put in place a robust action plan and recruited a new highly experienced management team.
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“We look forward to demonstrating to the CQC, the community in Marston Moretaine and our new residents the improvements that have been made when we re-open in the spring.”
When reopening the nursing home will remain as an ‘inadequate’ rated service in special measures.
The following conditions were put in place by the tribunal judge;
>Strict restrictions on the numbers of residents – including no more than two in any seven-calendar days from 1 March for four weeks – and a maximum of three residents per week for the next 20 week period.
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>The appointment of a consultancy for a minimum period of 18 months to provide professional management services for accommodation, nursing, personal care and treatment.
>Before reopening, the home shall have in place sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff who are permanent employees.
>When further admissions are made that would require an increase in staffing levels, admissions will pause whilst suitable additional suitably qualified trained care staff are recruited.
>Temporary staff engaged by an agency shall only be used in cases of necessary absence of permanent staff due to sickness, leave or sudden and unexpected absence or departure.
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>Before any resident is admitted to the home, the provider will need to undertake the following training:
a. safeguarding;
b. dignity in care;
c. moving and handling;
d. dementia;
e. infection control; and
f. COSHH
Read out previous reports on the care home by clicking the links below.