Doncaster care home '˜not always safe', rules care watchdog

The Care Quality Commission said the 44-bed Dunniwood Lodge in Bessacarr ‘requires improvement’ - the second lowest score possible - in four out of five key areas.

Following an unannounced visit in January, inspectors ruled that the service “was not always safe” as “medicine management was not always in line with the provider’s policy.”

This included evidence that temperature checks on a fridge which contained medicines had not been checked regularly enough.

Inspectors also found staff training had not taken place for “quite a while” prior to the new manager being appointed.

They added that while the service was now well led, systems such as audits to ensure procedures and policies were being followed, still needed embedding into practice.

Inspectors also concluded that the service was “not always responsive.”

On one occasion a person was sat in a wheelchair waiting to be transferred to a comfortable chair for “quite a while.”

However, care home staff were praised for being “caring” and received a good rating in this category.

The report also highlighted positive comments from residents. One said: “They (the staff) are a good example of what care staff should be.”

Another added: “The staff are all very nice and know just what I need.”

The home received an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’ and asked management to send a report outlining their improvement plan.

Inspectors pledged to make follow-up checks on progress.

Debbie Westhead, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector for adult social care in the North, said: “People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.

“If that is what we find on inspection - we give the service a rating of good, or outstanding. If we find that a service requires improvement, we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue.

We will share our findings with local commissioners, and we will return in due course to check that they have made the required improvements.”

Paul Milner, managing director of care home owners Astonbrook Care Homes, said: “The recent inspection at Dunniwood was the first inspection under the new CQC approach.

“Although we were disappointed with the overall rating of requires improvement, we have already put a number of improvements in place under our new manager to ensure we quickly respond to the areas identified and remain committed to continue to provide the best service for our residents.

“Although improvements are to be made the inspector highlighted a lot of good practice which can be seen throughout the report.”