A recent report published by Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that a resident at a Cambridge care home was told “to go to the toilet” in their bed after requesting a commode in their bedroom. The report also found that another person who needed to gain weight was not offered full-fat milk by staff which was required each day.

The Cambridge Care Home in Chesterton remains as 'requires overall improvement' following a focused inspection. Although it was praised for staff supporting people “in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests”.

The CQC report was published on January 5, 2023, following a focused inspection in September last year following concerns in relation to staffing, safety and the quality of care provided to people. The focused inspection was to review the key questions of safe, caring and well-led only.

Read more: Cambs care provider ‘requires improvement’ after CQC found people ‘were not always safe’

As a result of the focused inspection The Cambridge Care Home continued to require improvement in the three areas; safe, caring and well-led. A CQC report had previously been published for the care home in November last year following inspections in September and October which had the same ratings in the three areas.

However, the care home continued to receive a 'good' rating in both effective and responsive areas but remained as ‘requires improvement’ overall. The care home in Chesterton provides accommodation, nursing and personal care for up to 90 elderly people, some of which have dementia.

Bathroom with accessories to help with washing and using the toilet. Bathroom in a care home in England
One resident was told “to go to the toilet” in their bed after requesting a commode in their bedroom

The service is set out across two floors with various communal rooms and a secure garden area, at the time of the inspection 36 people were living at the service. It is provided and run by HC-One.

During the focused inspection at The Cambridge Care Home, inspectors found that not enough improvement had been made since their previous inspection, where they had found that the provider “had failed to ensure people were treated with dignity and respect”. The CQC report said that people were not always “supported to be independent or treated in a dignified manner”.

One person had told the inspector that they had requested a commode in their room but said "I was told just to go to the toilet in my bed." Another person said, "Sometimes I have to wait so long for help to the toilet I worry I'm going to wet myself."

Inspectors were also told by people that they didn’t feel that staff had the time to stop and talk to them with the report saying the care “remained very task-led” with “little interaction with people”. One person told CQC inspectors, "In the past staff were friendly."

Another person said: "There is no staff interaction. They don't have time for a chat”.

The CQC report also said “action had not always been taken to mitigate risks to people” it went on to say a lack of action meant there was an “increased risk to people living at the home”. Although the inspection found no evidence that people had been harmed they said: “further action was needed to ensure people were safe”.

They added: “Although procedures were in place to reduce risks to people they had not always been followed by staff to ensure people's health was not at risk”. This meant that some aspects of the service “were not always safe and there was limited assurance about safety” with an “increased risk that people could be harmed”.

The report confirmed that procedures were in place to assess if residents were at risk of dehydration and/or malnutrition but said “these procedures were not always followed by staff to encourage people to eat/drink more when they had not met their food and drink intake targets.”

An example included in the report was for one person who needed to gain weight and who had requested two glasses of full-fat milk each day, but when inspectors checked the record for the previous week, there was no record of the milk being offered. The report said: “The person confirmed that the milk had not been offered by staff and they were aware that they needed to gain weight so would drink it”.

Since the previous inspection by CQC and the last report that was published in November last year, they said not enough improvements had been made at The Cambridge Care Home to ensure “people received a good service”. They said the “service management and leadership was inconsistent”.

In the report, CQC adds: “The issues we found during this inspection had not been identified by the homes quality monitoring systems. The regional director, registered manager and deputy manager at The Cambridge Care Home had all changed since the previous inspection.

The Cambridge Care Home, High Street, Chesterton
The Cambridge Care Home, High Street, Chesterton

“The current management team acknowledged the feedback given during the inspection and put plans in place to make the necessary improvements”. But said it was too soon for these actions “to be embedded.”

They also found that there was a high use of agency staff in the care home but said “permanent staff were being recruited”.

With a good rating in two areas out of five CQC stated positively in the report that “People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice”.

Following the inspection, CQC said the Chesterton care home requires improvement overall and an action plan will be requested from the provider. You can find the full report of the CQC inspection here.

Following the report a spokesperson for HC-One said: "The health, safety and wellbeing of our Residents is our top priority, and we take all feedback from the regulator extremely seriously.

“The latest CQC report is based on the findings of a targeted inspection carried out in September last year. Since that time, we have been working hard to overcome the operational and local leadership challenges which have affected this home, and to make sure that we meet the standards rightly expected of us.

“The report recognises the immediate action we took after receiving feedback at the time of the visit under our new experienced Regional Management Team. In particular, our Colleagues have undertaken enhanced training, we are recruiting new kind care Colleagues thanks to our targeted recruitment drive, and we have introduced enhanced feedback measures for our Residents and Relatives to share any concerns.

“We remain relentlessly focused on improving and we will continue to work closely with the CQC, the Local Authority and external stakeholders to ensure that we provide a high standard of care to all our Residents.”

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