A Crieff care home has been criticised by an inspection watchdog after a high number of “medication errors” were reported, leading to fears over residents’ health.
The Balhousie Dalnaglar home on Comrie Road received a weak report from the Care Inspectorate following an unannounced visit in August.
Its report stated the care home’s support for residents’ wellbeing was below par as were staffing levels on all shifts.
The Care Inspectorate raised the home’s record keeping and medication administration methods, fearing they could impact residents’ health.
The report stated: “Dalnaglar had reported a high number of medication errors in the three months prior to our inspection.
“We found that medication was not managed effectively to meet people’s care needs.
“We saw delays in the administration of medication and staff being constantly interrupted whilst undertaking the task which had the potential to impact on people’s health.
“Poor record keeping led to difficulty in determining if medication prescribed ‘as required’ was administered in the person’s best interests.”
The home has been given until November 30 to bring their medication management up to standard.
Concerns were also raised about the staffing levels with, at times, only one person on duty to cover eight residents.
The report stated: “We were concerned about staffing levels on all shifts.
“There were times during the inspection that we did not see any staff available in the communal areas.
“We would expect communal areas, such as the lounges and dining rooms, to be supervised, however lack of staff numbers made this very difficult to achieve.
“There were also a number of agency staff working within the home. This meant that there was a lack of consistency with agency staff not always aware of people’s individual needs.”
The report highlighted however, that employees were themselves “warm and friendly”.
The care home group said it had already began to improve and has brought in a new home manager and operations manager.
A spokesperson for Balhousie Care Group said: “We had already begun to implement improvement strategies at our Dalnaglar care home in Crieff prior to the Care Inspectorate’s August visit, since it was clear there was work to be done to address certain service aspects in the home.
“This work has continued in the three months since the August inspection, and involves a robust long-term plan, developed in close collaboration with the Care Inspectorate and key care industry bodies, to ensure that Dalnaglar provides the quality of care expected throughout Balhousie Care Group.”
