Park House Care Home in Wellingborough told it needs to improve after CQC inspection

A Wellingborough care home has been told it needs to improve by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Inspectors carried out an unannounced inspection of Park House Care Home in Park Road in April.

They have since published their report, giving the home an overall rating of requires improvement – the same rating it received in March 2020.

While the home was rated good for its care, it was rated as requires improvement in each of the other areas they inspected - safe, effective, responsive and well-led.

The report says the inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about people receiving poor care, and also due to a review of information they held about the service – a decision was made to complete a full inspection to look at all aspects of the service.

The inspector’s report said: “People’s care and support had been impacted by a sustained period of management instability including several changes of manager since the last inspection.

"All aspects of the running and oversight of the service had been affected.

"Communication by staff was not always effective internally and with other agencies, which impacted upon people's care and raised the risk of unsafe care.

"Gaps and inconsistencies in care records and quality assurance checks required improvements to be made, embedded and sustained over time.”

A number of recommendations have been made and the CQC will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they are doing to improve the standards of quality and safety.

The CQC will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress.

Following the report, a spokesman for Four Seasons Health Care told the Northants Telegraph: “We deeply regret that Park House Care Home was found to be below the standards that we and the Care Quality Commission expect.

"Since the inspection in April, we have implemented a comprehensive action plan to address the areas noted in the report.

"We are pleased that the inspectors rated the home’s caring as good and that it recognises improvement in some of the key areas.

"There is now a long-term, permanent home manager, who has been in the home for three months following a period of instability due to leadership change, and there has been good progress in this time.

"Four Seasons has recently secured a long-term contract as an ‘approved partner’ with the local authority, which reinforces the progress being made.

"The safety and well-being of residents and colleagues in our homes remain our first priority.”

Park House Care Home is a residential and nursing care home providing personal and nursing care.

It was caring for 24 people at the time of the unannounced inspection, but it can accommodate up to 42 people in one purpose-built building.

To read the report in full, view it here on the CQC website.

Other local homes which have been inspected by the CQC in recent months include Highbury Residential Care Home in Rushden, The Conifers Residential Care Home in Rushden and Rushden Park care home in Rushden.