Kettering care home that was forced to close is ruled "inadequate"

A care home in Kettering that was forced to close in May after serious concerns were raised following the deaths of 11 residents has been found "inadequate" in a damning new report.

Temple Court Care Home, in Albert Street, was hit by a coronavirus outbreak in March and was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on May 12, 2020.

The CQC published the report of this visit on Thursday, October 29 and said Temple Court was found to be "inadequate" and by the end of the second day of inspections, all 21 residents had been moved to alternative care providers.

Back in May, the Northants Telegraph reported that as many as 11 residents had possibly died from coronavirus at Temple Court and staff had been off work since catching the virus.

Four residents lost their lives to coronavirus and another seven died of suspected coronavirus. Three more residents died from unrelated causes.

During the inspection, the CQC spoke to four residents and two people's relatives. It also spoke with seven members of staff, six community nursing staff and looked at records.

In the report, the CQC said the care home was unsafe because of failures in staff and management, and that residents' health was at risk. The CQC said residents were found malnourished, dehydrated and a number of safeguarding referrals were made.

The report said: "Since early April 2020, the registered manager and the senior care team had been absent from the service, the clinical lead was also on prolonged leave.

"The provider failed to deploy enough staff with the skills, competencies and supervision to carry out their roles safely.

"Staff had not received all the training they required, or had their competencies checked, to ensure they could meet people's needs. New, agency and deployed staff did not receive an adequate induction or receive supervision which led to poor care."

A relative of a resident said: "Carers are never around to take [resident] back to bed, their [body part] gets sore but there's no one available."

Staff also told the inspectors they were overrun and this meant they could not meet the needs of residents.

The report said: "Staff told us they could not cope with the workload expected of them, which resulted in people staying in bed, not receiving regular food, drink, personal care and repositioning.

"One member of staff told us many people needed two staff for personal care and help to eat and drink. They said, 'Since Christmas all people [had] very high needs. [The] provider did not increase staffing.'

"A member of night staff told us people missed out on evening food and drinks as they needed to ensure people received the personal care the day staff had not had time to do."

The report said it had found residents malnourished and dehydrated.

One relative told inspectors that their family member never had a drink in reach when they visited and was always thirsty. They also told inspectors about a time when staff forgot to give their loved one any lunch until relatives questioned it an hour and a half after lunch service.

Rotas showed there were very few permanent nurses in the home, with high numbers of agency staff. The rota for the week beginning April 20, 2020, showed all nurses were agency.

A member of night staff said: "The agency nurses only did the medicines. They would then go to sleep and only get up to do the meds that were due in the night. There were no permanent night nurses."

The deficiencies in staff meant residents were being failed. The report said: "People were not protected from the risks of abuse or poor care. Staff did not identify or report where people had come to harm, or report incidents, accidents and unexplained bruising. Following visits by commissioners, a number of safeguarding referrals were made for people."

The failures in staffing meant residents' health had deteriorated and the report said they were at risk from a lack of management of medicines, falls, mobility, wound care, and more.

The report added: "Staff failed to take prompt action to seek medical care where people displayed signs of ill health or failed to receive their medicines."

The damning report said the failures meant people's dignity and respect was not maintained because care and provision was not made for their mental and physical well-being.

The CQC's report said it is mindful of the aware of the impact of Covid-19 and this has been taken into account as an exceptional circumstance.

Temple Court was being run by Amicura Limited, who told the Northants Telegraph in June that Covid-19 caused the problems and that authorities were "sweeping it under the carpet".

In a statement from June, Amicura Limited said: "An influx of residents from the NHS in late March led to an outbreak of Covid-19 which affected existing residents and a large proportion of staff, including the manager and entire senior team. This left the home disproportionately reliant on the use of available agency staff, with very little opportunity to adequately train them on our policies and procedures.

"We sought assistance from the local authority and NHS Nene CCG on 30 April when it became clear to us that the home could no longer cope, and care and governance had become inadequate.

"We are grateful for the assistance given, which included up to fifty per cent of staff being provided by the authorities on any given day.

"The CQC inspection took place on 12 May – when care was being directed by the local authority and NHS Nene CCG – and 13 May when the home was completely empty.

"The home was assessed by the CQC in June of last year as ‘requiring improvement’ and significant investment was made in both the management team and physical environment, with the sole aim of improving the quality of care and experience for residents.

"Huge progress was made and was recognised in a positive report by NHS Nene CCG on January 23 which had an overall score of 92 per cent. This included scores of 100 per cent in nutrition and hydration, safeguarding, infection prevention and control, medication management, prevention of falls, access to primary care, staffing, and staff training – all of which are now rated inadequate by the CQC’s report.

"Our priority has always been the wellbeing of our residents and giving them the best care possible, and we are very disappointed that the root cause of the very sudden deterioration of standards has simply been swept under the carpet."

The CQC report published last week said urgent action was taken to restrict admissions and readmissions to Temple Court but no further civil action has been taken because the provider has cancelled their registration.

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