Wigan nursing home found in breach of regulations despite EIGHT warnings from watchdog

Douglas Bank Nursing Home, in Appley Bridge, was rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as “requires improvement” – the same result it got following an inspection last year.

The watchdog criticised the handling of medicines, assessing risk regarding fire safety and the recording of risks to people’s health in its report.

The Lees Lane site is set over two floors, with the ground floor dedicated to people with nursing needs and the first floor meeting the needs of people living with dementia.

In the category of safety, for which it was ranked as ‘”requires improvement”, inspectors visiting the home found documentation needed to be better.

The report highlighted that amounts of thickener for drinks required were not specific and opening dates of medicines were not always recorded or stored correctly – being left in bedrooms.

The care home was rated “inadequate” for how well-led the service was. The report also mentioned a high turnover rate of staff.

“We found that not enough improvement had been made, and the provider was now in breach of regulation,” the report stated.

“Improvements had not been made since the last inspection and there continued to be shortfalls in assessing, monitoring and mitigating risk to people.

“We identified concerns in similar areas at eight previous inspections, showing a repeated failure to improve standards and practice. Action had not been taken to address fire safety and medicines management.”

Despite this, the report found that residents were kept safe from the risk of abuse and there were sufficient staffing levels, with less reliance on agency staff compared to the previous inspection.

The home was also credited by inspectors as being clean, comfortable and people were protected from the risk of mistakes being repeated.

Bernie Suresparan, chief executive officer at We Care Group, the organisation which runs Douglas Bank, said: “We are disappointed by the rating given by the Care Quality Commission following their recent inspection of Douglas Bank Nursing Home when they inspected two key questions, is the service safe, which it has rated as requires improvement, and is the service well-led, which it has rated inadequate. As a result of this inspection the home has been rated as requires improvement, despite the other three questions – is the service effective, caring and responsive – remaining as good.

“The safety and well-being of our residents is paramount and we would like to reassure them and their families that the manager and all the team are working hard to address the concerns raised in the report and to make the necessary improvements. We are pleased that the report recognises that the manager has begun to address many of the issues.

“With the appointment of a new deputy manager and a senior carer we are confident that the home will soon be back to the good standard we expect within our homes.”

The CQC has ordered the care home to take action after being found in breach of regulations relating to risks associated with unsafe medicines and fire safety.