Hastings care home criticised for not meeting Covid-19 guidelines

Mountside Residential Care Home, in Laton Road, was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The home was rated as ‘requires improvement’ in its latest inspection, having been rated ‘Good’ in the previous one in 2019.

In their report, inspectors said: “There was a lack of clarity regarding the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and prevention of infection. There had been no Covid-19 person specific risk assessments completed for people or staff during the pandemic.

“Care and treatment was not consistently provided in a safe way. We were not assured that staff had all received essential training and the specific training necessary to meet people’s individual needs.

“There was no evidence provided that agency staff were recruited safely to work at Mountside Residential Care Home.

“There were no records of disclosure and barring checks, or agreements that the agency staff did not work elsewhere during the pandemic.

“The provider was relying on agency staff to provide regular staffing in the service. They had not assured themselves that these staff were working exclusively in this service. This raised a risk of agency staff spreading infections.

“The provider was currently recruiting to staff vacancies. The manager explained that there had been a high turnover of staff during the pandemic, which had impacted on team working and team building.”

However, CQC inspectors said residents enjoyed living at the care home and were told by residents they were well looked after.

The report said: “Staff were respectful to people and wanted to deliver good care.”

Steve Drew, the care home’s manager, said: “We are, of course, disappointed by the report of the CQC inspection which took place in November last year.

“We completely accept the CQC findings although some of the failings were caused by evidence not being available at the time of the inspection.

“We already have a comprehensive action plan in place to rectify the problems and our aim is to return to our ‘Good’ rating as soon as possible.

“Since the home changed owner last year, the new company has invested a significant amount of money in improving the fabric of the building and maintaining essential services.

“The home’s decorating and refurbishment programme has been interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic although essential maintenance continues.

“A new manager has been appointed and he had already identified most of the problems in the home, some of which had been caused by the additional work required to cope with the Covid-19 outbreak throughout the summer.

“As a result, some of the supporting evidence was not available at the time of the inspection, for example training records, risk assessments and policies.

“These have now been put in place. Staff do wear the correct PPE at all times and follow the guidance issued by Public Health England.

“All staff had specific Covid-19 training in the summer and we are in the process of reviewing and updating this. Risk assessments were in place for the home but not for individual residents.

“We have embarked on a process of updating these and also reviewing all care plans.

“Other things in the plan include reviewing all senior staff roles, a recruitment drive to fill vacant posts, including a new senior care Assistant role, improving induction, supervision and appraisal processes as well as all training.

“A new full-time administrator has been appointed which will help with ensuring all records are maintained and are accessible.

“All policies and procedures are also being reviewed. A service improvement specialist has been appointed to support this programme over the next few weeks.

“We are confident with this investment we can bring the home back up to the standard required. It has a good reputation locally and an excellent staff team that has worked hard through this difficult period to maintain standards.”

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