Patient at inadequate Norfolk care home 'left without food for three days'
Inspectors believe a care home resident was left without food for three days in a damning report which orders bosses to improve.
The incident was seen in food records at Church Farm Care Home in Hemsby, Norfolk, which also showed some of residents, many of whom have dementia, had not eaten anything for 24 hours.
Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited the home last October and gave it the lowest possible rating - 'inadequate'.
Church Farm Care Home is now in special measures and is run by Hewitt-Hill Limited which took it on in July 2023. It will be under review by the CQC.
Bosses disputed the findings but said improvements were being made.
A spokesman on behalf of the care home said the home had "progressed improvements" since the inspection, adding: "The CQC’s statement that a service user hadn’t eaten for three days is strongly refuted.
"While it is recognised there was a lack of recording of food intake at the time, this is simply a recording error and does not reflect the actual care provided to the resident.
"We are disappointed with the outcome of the latest CQC inspection, particularly as the CQC has failed to take into account the home’s programme of improvement, has failed to report on the positive changes that have taken place and has not allowed sufficient time for planned improvements to be fully implemented and embedded."
The report also highlighted concerns including:
People were at risk of accessing, and consuming items including denture cleaning tablets, drink thickening powder, personal care products such as razors, which were being stored in the same cups as tooth brushes. This was of particular concern for those people living with dementia, reliant on staff to keep them safe.
The quality of information shared between staff at their shift handover meetings was poor.
Staffing numbers, particularly at night time were not sufficient to meet people's assessed needs and risks.
People's call bells to activate and sound for long periods of time before staff were available to respond to their needs.
Another inspection will be done in six months to check for improvements if the watchdog does not propose the Hewitt-HIll Limited registration is cancelled.
Gill Hodgson-Reilly, CQC deputy director of operations in the east of England, said there were "serious concerns around the safety and wellbeing of residents".
"It was clear to us that the service wasn’t well-led," she added. "The new provider hadn’t conducted thorough reviews and assessments when they took over the service, so weren’t aware of the areas where improvements needed to be made.
"This poor leadership was behind most of the issues we found. The service wasn’t meeting people’s basic needs in areas like making sure they eat and drink enough.
"We looked at food records and found some people hadn’t eaten anything for 24 hours and one person hadn't eaten anything for three days.
"This is unacceptable and we made referrals to the local safeguarding team and told leaders at the time of the inspection to address this immediately."
She added it was "extremely worrying" that all five inspection areas were rated as inadequate.
There were also reports of a "closed culture" among staff, concerns that morale was low and many staff did not feel confident when reporting concerns to leaders.
But the CQC found that residents were able to receive visitors without restrictions which met best practice guidance and was good for people’s well-being.
At the time of the visit, 36 residents were living in the care home which can look after up to 40 people aged 65 and over.
Hewitt-Hill Limited which was not in charge of the home when it was previously inspected by the CQC in December 2019 and rated as requires improvement.
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