Corby care home which suffered deadly Covid outbreak told it needs to improve

A care home in Corby where at least nine residents died in a Covid outbreak has been told it needs to improve after breaching health and social care regulations.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Seagrave House on February 2, just after we reported how the virus had swept through the Occupation Road home.

Several residents died with as many as 35 residents and 40 members of staff testing positive.

The CQC did not seek to attribute blame for the outbreak and graded the home as requires improvement, with those who run Seagrave House saying they were "saddened" by the report.

Inspectors who visited said they found cleaning records for shared bathrooms and high touch areas were not up to scratch.

The report, published on Saturday (March 6), said: "Cleaning records did not provide details about who had cleaned shared bathrooms between use or if they had been cleaned.

"There were limited records for the cleaning of high touch areas. This additional cleaning is required in order to reduce the risk of spread of infection during the Covid-19 pandemic."

Inspectors said they had been assured that the home was meeting shielding and social distancing rules, using PPE effectively and safely, testing residents and staff and was making sure that infection outbreaks can be effectively prevented or managed.

But in their overall report they found there was an increased risk that people could be harmed and that the service was not always safe or well-led.

They lowered the home's CQC rating from good to requires improvement, finding two Health and Social Care Act regulation breaches covering safe care and treatment (regulation 12) and good governance (regulation 17).

The CQC report said: "We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress.

"We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner."

A spokesman for Northampton-based Avery Healthcare, which runs the home, said: “We were saddened by the rating, given how hard the team have worked through the pandemic.

"However we are working on our action plan to address the issues CQC identified.”

Health regulators visited for an unannounced inspection after they received concerns over infection control, PPE and record keeping.

In their report, they said that not all risk had been identified or included in risk management plans.

Unexplained injuries had not always been investigated fully or followed up to establish the cause and not all incidents had been recorded or analysed, so that any trends could be identified, or action taken to reduce further risk.

However, those they spoke to at the home praised staff there and said they were "all wonderful".