Safety errors at borough care home

Bedford Care Home was told it “requires improvement” following a review by the Care Quality Commission carried out earlier this year.

The report, released this month, details a number of concerns surrounding the safety of the home - which currently homes 160 people, each requiring nursing or personal care.

Staffing levels were criticised, with the majority of employees at the home saying that the staffing is “not sufficient” to make residents safe.

One staff member told the inspectors: “People have high needs on this unit so we need a minimum of five carers but we don’t always have this.

“The office isn’t interested when we’re short-staffed.”

Another added: “When we have five care staff in a morning we are okay. It’s busy but we can manage. However we can be left with only three care staff in a morning and this isn’t safe.

The step down residents are complex and the office often don’t understand their needs. We have had to just get on with it, though.”

Despite these significant setbacks, the home was praised for its approach when recording serious accidents and incidents.

An inspector observed: “We saw where accidents had occurred, these had been investigated and preventative measures put in place to keep people safe. Monitoring of trends had also been completed, for example how many accidents had been the result of slips, trips or falls.”

Of the five areas assessed regarding, safety, effectiveness, responsiveness, management and the level of care shown by staff, only one was rated as “good”. Staff were deemed to be “caring”.

The CQC has advised home management to improve a number of areas, including monitoring people’s dietary and hydration needs to help keep residents on their correct diets. However, staff were deemed to be “caring”, with numerous residents and their relatives commenting on how “kind and caring” employees.