Horsham care home is told it must improve

Mill River Lodge care home has come in for new criticism following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

The home, which provides accommodation for up to 70 elderly people and those suffering from dementia, is run by Shaw Healthcare.

It was rated ‘requires improvement’ in a report out this week following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission in May.

At a previous inspection in August 2016 the home also received a rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ and was found to be in breach of the Health and Social Care Act.

There were concerns over a lack of oversight of processes within the home and the deployment of staff to meet people’s needs ‘in a timely manner’.

In their latest report, inspectors said “sufficiency and deployment of staff had improved. However, we continued to have concerns with regards to the managerial oversight.” They said the home was found to be in continued breach of regulations.

“This is the third consecutive time the service has been rated as ‘Requires Improvement’.”

The inspectors added: “Most people were treated with respect and dignity. However, not all people were treated in this way and person-centred practice was not always evident.”

The commission also said it had not always been notified of incidents that had occurred at the home which “not always enable us to have oversight to ensure people were safe.”

Liam Scanlon, director of compliance and governance at Shaw Healthcare said: “We’re disappointed with the rating, especially since Shaw has its own strict quality and compliance guidelines to ensure the highest standard of person-centred care. The report highlighted aspects of the service that required attention and are now the significant focus of senior management.

“We were pleased to see that the feedback from the report stated that our employees were kind, treated residents with dignity and respect and that the food is good. We are confident that the aspects requiring attention are in the process of being rectified.”