Inadequate care home put in special measures

A damning report has been published by health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after inspectors rated Deanwood Care Home as inadequate in all areas.

Inspectors found the Orrell care home failed to keep its residents safe and failed to provide a responsive, caring, well-led and effective service.

They found that the provider had not deployed sufficient levels of skilled, trained and qualified members of staff to ensure people’s needs were met and had failed to protect people against the risks associated with medicines and the extensive building work being carried out at the home.

Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said: “The care we saw being provided at Deanwood Manor falls a long way short of what we expect services to provide. It is unacceptable that the provider has failed to protect people from avoidable risks and was not providing high quality person centred care.

“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care and we have told the provider that they must take action as a priority.

“We have been working with Wigan Council to ensure that people living at the home are not at undue risk. We will continue to monitor this care home.

“We have placed this service in special measures – and we are considering taking enforcement action and will report on this action when it is completed.”

Care was observed as task based which did not take into account people’s personal choices and requests, and on one unit mealtimes were disorganised and not seen as a positive experience for the people using the service.

The provider was not operating robust systems to monitor the quality of the service or handle complaints appropriately, and had failed to notify CQC of several serious incidents.

A spokesman for Dovehaven Care Group said: “Deanwood Manor was purchased by the Dovehaven Group last year after being in Receivership for some time following the collapse of the Mimosa Group.

“The Dovehaven Group have invested heavily in the Home including substantial refurbishment throughout and installing a new Management Team.

“They are working closely with the Care Quality Commission and Wigan Council to improve standards and much has been achieved since the Home was inspected last November.

“They would like to thank Residents, their families and the Staff for their continued help and support through this difficult period.”