The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Woodfield Care Home in Greetland, Halifax, as inadequate and placed it into special measures to protect people following an inspection in November and December.
Woodfield Care Home, run by Woodfield Care Home Limited, provides personal and nursing care for up to 36 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia, have a sensory impairment or a physical disability.
CQC carried out this inspection to follow up on concerns about standards of care and safety at the home. During this inspection, there were breaches of regulation regarding safe care and treatment, staffing and how the service is managed.
CQC has downgraded the home's overall rating from good to inadequate. Effective, caring and responsive have gone down from good to requires improvement, and well led and safe have gone down from good to inadequate.
The service has been placed in special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while Woodfield Care Home Limited make improvements. Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.
Victoria Marsden, CQC deputy director of operations, north adult social care, said:
"When we inspected Woodfield, it was disappointing to see such a deterioration in the quality of care being provided. Leaders weren’t managing the service well, meaning people weren’t receiving the safe and person-centred care they deserved.
"Leaders didn’t ensure the environment was safe for people to live in and we had concerns about the security of the building. For example, a person living with dementia who lacked capacity had left the building unnoticed by staff on more than one occasion which placed them at serious risk of harm.
"Our inspectors saw that people’s basic care needs weren’t always met and staff didn’t complete people’s care plans to include details about their preferences and wishes. A relative told us they were concerned about the appearance of their relative who appeared unkempt due to a lack of staff support with their personal care.
"Whilst we found staff were kind and caring, they weren't supported by leaders to deliver safe care. Leaders also didn’t ensure staffing levels were sufficient, meaning people often experienced delays in receiving support.
“We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid, and continued improvements and will continue to monitor the home closely to keep people safe during this time. We have begun the process of taking regulatory action in order to protect people further.”
Inspectors found:
- External professionals raised concerns about people being isolated in their bedrooms.
- Leaders didn’t listen to concerns about safety and didn’t investigate and report issues.
- Woodfield Care Home didn’t assess people’s needs and risks properly meaning they could be placed at risk of unsafe care.
- Staff didn’t ensure people received their medications safely.
- Woodfield didn’t always ensure people were supported to plan for important life changes, so they could make informed decisions about their future, including at the end of their life.
- Leaders didn’t ensure staff received support, supervision and development to carry out their roles effectively.
- Staff didn’t always protect people from the risk of infection.