Lancashire care home left residents at risk, report finds

A previously outstanding care home has been ordered to improve after inspectors found residents were left at risk from unsafe care.

Lancashire care home, EachStep Blackburn, was inspected by health and care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2022.

Issues highlighted by inspectors included poor record keeping, substandard management of medications and incomplete care plans.

The CQC found the quality of the home had declined since the last inspection, and rated the general caring category only as good.

The home, which cares for up to 64 adults with dementia and other conditions, had previously received back-to-back outstanding ratings.

This time the watchdog found problems including one person being left with a meal in front of them for half an hour without being offered support until inspectors intervened.

Rating the home as "requires improvement", inspectors also found: people were left at risk from "inconsistent and unsafe" care; risk assessments had not always been updated; gaps in people's food and fluid charts, while fluid intake had not been totalled or evaluated; failure to ensure the proper and safe management of medicines; residents had individual care plans but some were incomplete and other sections had been left blank.

Residents told inspectors they felt safe living in the home, were satisfied with the service provided and found staff to be kind and respectful.

But the report noted "limited interactions between the staff and people living in the home" and "shortfalls" in some people's care plans and records.

The CQC said: "We saw no evidence of group residents' meetings and people had not been invited to complete a satisfaction survey.”

Park Homes’ operations director, Phil Benson, said "significant improvements" had already been made.

He added: "While we are pleased that the caring nature of the home has been highlighted within the report, we fully acknowledge, accept, and apologise to the people we support, and their families, that there are things we need to do to improve this home."

The CQC said it would monitor the home's progress and return for another inspection.