Scotland’s care watchdog has raised ”significant concerns” following an inspection of a Highland Perthshire nursing home.
The inspection team also said it had seen ”no significant progression of the service” since the last inspection in April 2012.
The report also highlighted problems with medical storage and stock control.
Inspectors found the temperature of a medicine fridge was not recorded daily, there was over-ordering of medicines and surplus medicines were not removed each month.
There were also examples of medication not being administered as prescribed.
One patient was not given their medicine to treat heart problems for seven days because staff thought it should be taken with or after food and the resident was not eating. This was not the case.
Another patient had not had their pressure ulcer assessed as regularly as required.
Despite the negative overall grading, elements of the care provided were praised.
The report states: ”The staff team appeared to be caring and professional when supporting residents. Families we spoke with told us that most staff were kind, supportive and did their best for their relative.”
One former member of Balhousie staff said the unsatisfactory report came as no surprise, adding: ”It’s absolutely atrocious that older people are treated with such a lack of respect and dignity.”
Sandra Ross, director of operations at Balhousie Care Group, said: ”We are fully aware of the issues raised by the Care Inspectorate, which were already being addressed prior to the inspection, and remain committed to providing high quality care to the people we look after.
”We are working closely with the Care Inspectorate to address every area highlighted for improvement as a matter of urgency and have developed a robust action plan to resolve each of the points raised including the staffing issues, which are made more challenging by the rural location of Pitlochry and difficulties with transport links.
”Residents and their families have been kept informed. We have also placed a voluntary embargo on new admissions to allow us to focus on our existing residents’ care while the action plan is being rolled out.”
In the official report (PDF link) compiled by the Care Inspectorate, the Balhousie Pitlochry Care Home was labelled ”unsatisfactory” for both its quality of care and support and its quality of management and leadership.
Its quality of staffing received a slightly higher mark, being classed as ”weak”, while a ”not applicable” comment was returned for the quality of environment.
The Care Inspectorate has now issued an Improvement Notice, requiring the home to make significant improvements in provision of service.
The team who carried out a high intensity inspection were particularly concerned by the lack of a permanent manager at the home.
The report said: ”We have significant concerns regarding the management of this service. The service has no permanent manager and has had a high turnover of managers since the service registered in October 2011.
”A high level of staff turnover and difficulty in maintaining adequate staffing levels has impacted on the care and support received by residents.”
Inspectors spoke to a number of residents’ relatives.
Comments included: ”There is a distinct lack of leadership”; ”There must have been a good half dozen managers or more since it opened”; and ”no name badges, high turnover, we can’t keep up with staff changes”.
The report said the management team must review the training needs of staff and have a structured approach to staff training.
Continued…