Irchester care home told it requires improvement after visit from CQC inspectors

A Northamptonshire care home that was without a manager for over a year-and-a-half has been told it ‘requires improvement’ following an inspection.

Meadow View Care Home, in Irchester, provides support for up to 53 residents living with dementia, or a physical disability.

At the time of inspection in April 2023, there were 42 people living at the home. The service has declined since it previously received a ‘good’ rating in July 2022. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has since rated the service as ‘requires improvement’ in a report published on November 17.

The unannounced inspection was prompted due to concerns raised about the management of the service and safeguarding concerns over wound care. The CQC report established shortfalls in residents’ care records not being accurate, failures to prescribe medicine on time, poor cleanliness around the home and a lack of management and oversight over the whole service.

One incident observed by inspectors involved a person’s catheter care plan that had no guidance for staff to follow. There was no detail on how to properly clean or monitor their fluids and nutrition, which put them at risk of harm. Another resident had not received their medicine for their health condition for two days after staff failed to order the prescription in advance. There was no system in place to ensure sufficient medicine stock at the time.

Issues with cleanliness in the home were highlighted by inspectors, including that “windows were dirty and storage areas not kept clean”. Staff did not always make referrals at the right time to make sure that people’s health and well-being were maintained and health professionals weren’t always alerted on such concerns.

The report also said that service leaders “did not always support the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care” and that there were insufficient systems in place to monitor and review service users’ medication needs and safety risks – for example, management had not identified the issues CQC found with continence and wound care.

The care home didn’t have a registered manager for 19 months, despite it being a requirement to have someone in place to be responsible for the quality of care provided. Following the inspection, the regional director confirmed that they had recruited a new manager to join the service.

Despite copious areas of improvement identified by CQC inspectors, families did feel that their relatives were safe and supported by staff. One resident’s family member said: “Happy with the care [my relative] gets. Only thing that has bothered me, has been the rapid turnover of the management. People do not tend to stay.”

Work has been undertaken between the management team and the local authority to ensure all safeguarding concerns have been reported correctly following the inspection. A member of staff told inspectors: “We are working hard, we know improvements are needed, but we are all trying.”

The CQC is to request an action plan from the facility to understand what their steps will be to improve their standards. Meadow View Care Home has been contacted for comment.