CQC takes further action to protect people at Cheshire care home

The Care Quality Commission has rated Winsford Grange Care Home in Winsford inadequate and placed the home into special measures to protect people, following an inspection in August.

Winsford Grange Care Home, run by Park Homes (UK) Limited, provides accommodation and personal care for up to 60 people. At the time of inspection, 28 people were living at the home.

CQC carried out this inspection to follow up on concerns raised at the previous inspection where breaches were found in relation to people’s safety and treatment, and how the service is managed.

Following this inspection, CQC has rated the areas of safe, effective and well-led as inadequate again. Caring and responsive have gone up from inadequate to requires improvement.

The service remains in special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while Winsford Grange Care Home make improvements. Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen. CQC has begun the process of taking regulatory action to address the concerns which Park Homes (UK) Limited has the right to appeal.

Inspectors found:

• Leaders didn’t ensure accidents and incidents were monitored and investigated properly.
• Staff didn’t manage people’s medicines safely and there were times when people missed doses which placed them at risk of harm.
• Managers and staff didn’t always keep care records up to date to reflect people’s changing needs.
• The home had a lack of suitably qualified staff to meet the needs of the people.
• Leaders didn’t always detect and control potential risks in the care environment to keep people safe.
• Staff didn’t always assess or manage the risk of infection.
• People weren’t always involved in planning their own care and support.

However:

• People and their relatives said staff were kind and caring.
• Staff supported people with their daily choices including what they wanted to wear and what time they went to bed.

The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.