Damning report for Blackpool care home.

A Blackpool care home has been severely criticised by healthcare watchdogs and condemned as “unsafe, ineffective and uncaring” in a damning new report.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said that The Orchard Lodge Care Home failed to carry out urgent improvements after an inspection earlier this year which found problems including locks being put on the outside of residents’ rooms to keep them in.

The home has since been sold and renamed Hollins Bank Residential Care Home by new owners.

CQC inspectors visited in May and June to see if action had been taken following the report in April and seven warning notices.

They found Orchard Lodge managers, Dharma Ltd, had failed to meet the warning notices’ requirements and had not carried out improvement plan actions due to be completed by April 30.

The latest report says: “We saw poor practices in relation to maintaining people’s safety when being supported.

“We found multiple breaches of people’s environmental safety and had many concerns over the maintenance of infection control and cleanliness.

“The medication audit had not been carried out monthly as indicated on records held by the home and we noted that there were times when there were inadequate numbers and skill mixes of staff on duty to provide care.

“We observed poor practices in relation to staff helping people to eat. Staff failed to promote people’s dignity or show respect to individuals.

The inspectors said a stair-gate had been removed from the main staircase and no alternative safety measures introduced, some safety devices on windows and doors were missing, kitchen safety was poor with pans of boiling water not monitored where residents could be present and staff had poor infection control and medicine administration training.

There were patchy nutritional risk assessments and no consistent monitoring of weight loss to prevent malnutrition.

The inspectors also said: “The provider continued to fail to work within the Mental Capacity Act. We observed incidences where people were deprived of their liberty without authorisation.

“There was no documentation to show that best interests, consent, risk and mental capacity assessments had been undertaken in relation to deprivation of liberty or the continued use of bedrails.

“We also observed poor practices from staff when they supported people and staff interactions were poor and did not demonstrate a caring attitude.”

The inspectors also found that many residents’ records and care plans were not up to date or sufficiently in-depth which could have led to inappropriate care.

The inspectors said: “The overall rating for this provider is ‘Inadequate’ and it has been placed into ‘special measures’ by CQC.”