Today, Monday 16 February at Brighton Magistrates’ Court a care home provider has been ordered to pay £26,764.47 after it failed to provide safe care and treatment to a resident living at one of their care homes.
This is as a result of a prosecution brought against it by the Care Quality Commission.
Crest House Care Limited pled guilty to failing to provide safe care and treatment to M.E.D, thereby causing them avoidable harm. This resulted in one offence under Regulation 12(2) and 22(2)(a) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The court fined Crest House Care Limited £10,000 for this. It was also ordered to pay a £2000 victim surcharge and £14,764.47 costs.
On 18 July 2022, M.E.D, a resident at Crest House Care Home, fell from the first-floor window of their room, which did not have window restrictors in place. They sustained multiple injuries including fractures to their spine, femur, and foot, as well as a scalp haemorrhage. M.E.D required several surgeries and has ongoing mobility issues because of this fall.
CQC brought the prosecution case because Crest House Care Limited failed to provide safe care and treatment to M.E.D by not ensuring that the windows in their room were restricted to prevent openings beyond 10cm which is a legal requirement. As a result, the home failed to take reasonably practicable steps to mitigate the risk of them falling from a first-floor window.
Amy Jupp, CQC deputy director of operations in the East Sussex said:
“When people are living in care homes, they have the right to expect that homes will properly assess and manage risks to keep them safe. Tragically, this did not happen for M.E.D at Crest House Care Home, resulting in life changing injuries including multiple fractures and a scalp haemorrhage.
“The failure of the Crest House, to identify and address clear dangers was unacceptable resulting in serious harm coming to a highly vulnerable person and potentially putting other residents at that same risk.
“Most care homes take their responsibilities seriously and act to protect the people they support. But when an organisation falls short and exposes someone to such serious harm, we will act to hold them accountable.
“This prosecution should remind all providers of adult social care of their duty to protect people by carrying out thorough risk assessments and taking every reasonable step to keep them safe. I would urge all organisations providing similar accommodation to ensure their own window restrictors meet safety standards to avoid this happening to other people.”
CQC does not keep the fines that the defendants are issued with by the court, this money goes directly to HM Treasury.