'Inadequate' North Yorkshire care home.

A North Yorkshire care home has been told by the  Care Quality Commission (CQC) to make improvements or face enforcement action.

Care Quality Commission inspectors made an unannounced inspection at Lake and Orchard Care Centre, Riccall, York, in July and September 2014 and found that the home was failing to provide safe, effective, caring, responsive or well-led care.

A detailed report of the inspection has been published on the CQC website.

Under CQC’s new inspections programme, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall Lake and Orchard Care Centre was rated ‘Inadequate’.

As a result of the inspections, CQC has issued the provider, Embrace (South West) Limited, with warning notices, setting deadlines for improvements in relation to care and welfare, assessing and monitoring of service quality, cleanliness and infection control, medicines management and staffing.

The report identifies a number of areas in which improvements are required:  

• Care and treatment was not planned and delivered in a way that ensured people's safety and welfare. Care plans were incomplete and did not always reflect people’s personal preferences.
• People were not protected from the risk of infection because they were not cared for in a clean, hygienic environment.
• There was not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs.
• People living at the home did not always receive their medicines when required or in a safe way. Some medicines were not stored at the correct temperature.
• The provider did not have an effective system in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that residents received
• The home did not have suitable arrangements in place for obtaining people’s consent to the care and treatment provided.
• People’s capacity to make decisions was not assessed in line with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

CQC deputy chief inspector of adult social care in the North, Debbie Westhead, said:  “The care provided at Lake and Orchard Care Centre fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide. We have told them they must take action to resolve the issues we identified.

“The provider is failing to meet the basic needs and individual choices of the people living at Lake and Orchard Carer Centre. Many people living at the home do not have the ability to consent and the home has not ensured they were lawfully protected.

“We have made it clear that we will return to the home to check that the necessary improvements have been made.  If not, we will take further action to make sure that people living there receive care which is safe, effective, caring and responsive to their needs.”