Formal warning for Westbury home (From Wiltshire Times)

Formal warning for Westbury home

1:00pm Sunday 9th September 2012 in News By Will Frampton

A Westbury care home has been given a formal warning by the Care Quality Commission after failing an inspection last month.

The Orders of St John’s Care Trust Watersmead home received an unannounced visit by inspectors in July, following up on a previous inspection in December.

The CQC has warned the trust, which is registered to care for up to 50 people, it faces enforcement action unless urgent improvements are made.

Inspectors failed the home on six of the eight outcomes assessed, saying residents did not always have relevant care plans, and that those in place were not consistently followed.

They also questioned the home’s quality and safety audit system, noting it had not picked up failings they identified, and that risks it did identify were not followed up.

A spokesman for the trust said it was already reviewing specific issues raised in the report.

“We were disappointed to receive the warning notice about our Watersmead home,” he said. “We believe the actual care outcomes residents experience at Waters-mead are good, but we will, of course, act on the findings of the recent inspection.”

CQC deputy director Ian Biggs said: “Our inspectors will return in the near future to carry out another inspection.

“If we find the home is not making the required progress, we won’t hesitate to use our legal powers further to protect the people who live there.”

Longbridge Deverill House care home was also criticised in a recent CQC report, based on an inspection carried out in July this year. This week the commission said it had now re-inspected the home and found ‘significant improvements’. and that the home was now compliant.

The inspectors had noted gaps in records for applications of ointments, that staff lacked information on administering certain medicines, and that some may have misses doses of their regular medicines.

They were also worried that other criticisms from an inspection earlier this year, that medicine was withheld without a doctor’s written advice and that residents were at risk of being moved inappropriately, had not been addressed.