A care home where some residents were found eating scrambled egg and baked beans with their fingers has been placed in ‘special measures.’
Holme House Care Home in Oxford Road, Gomersal, near Cleckheaton, has been rated as ‘inadequate’ following an inspection in February.
It was registered at the time of the inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide residential and nursing care including for people living with dementia.
At the time of the inspection there were 52 people living at the home.
It was previously inspected in October 2015 and was rated as ‘requiring improvement.’
In March 2016 the Examiner revealed that one of its nurses, Winifred Jozi, had been struck off after she failed to attempt resuscitation on a dying patient.
Instead of phoning 999 she contacted the NHS Direct helpline – after a colleague found 59-year-old resident Susan Burgess ‘cold and unresponsive.’
Debbie Westhead, CQC’s deputy chief inspector for adult social care, said: “People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, responsive and high quality care.
“We found that the care provided at Holme House Care Home fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide.
We inspected this home in October last year and told them where they needed to improve.
“It is disappointing that there has been a lack of action taken since the previous inspection, and also worrying that we found fresh concerns.
“We were worried about the basic safety of people living at this service. There were no fire extinguishers available on some parts of the service, cleaning materials were stored in an unlocked cupboard and there were not enough suitably qualified staff on duty putting people at risk.
“People were not always supported to live in a way which maintained their dignity. We saw people using their fingers to eat food such as scrambled egg and baked beans which is unacceptable. Whilst eating with their fingers may be better for some people, we would expect them to be provided with appropriate finger food.”
Speaking for the home James Creegan, director of care at Croft Carehomes Ltd, Wakefield, said: “There is never any excuse for poor care. It is with deep sadness that on the day of the visit from CQC the quality of care at our care home fell well below the standard we have set ourselves and for this there is no excuse.
“The home had undergone significant change to its management structure and with the recruitment of registered nurses being incredibly difficult within the whole of the care sector it has been difficult to attract quality nurses resulting in an over reliance on agency staff.
“This put significant pressure on the existing staff team which led to an inconsistent and poorly led service.”
