York care home warned to make urgent improvements (From York Press)

Inspectors say failings must be addressed at Birchlands Care Home in Moor Lane, Haxby

10:20am Thursday 13th December 2012 in News By Nadia Jefferson-Brown, nadia.jefferson-brown@thepress.co.uk

Birchlands Care Home, in Moor Lane, Haxby

A CARE home in York has been ordered to make urgent improvements after a damning inspection report.

Inspectors on an unannounced visit to Birchlands Care Home in Moor Lane, Haxby, found it was failing to meet national standards or to protect residents’ welfare and safety.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has now issued a formal warning to Mimosa Healthcare (No 4) Ltd, the home’s registered provider, giving the firm until January 15 to improve.

If it fails, it could face sanctions from the CQC, possibly including restrictions on services, suspensions or cancellation of services, fines, cautions or prosecution.

Malcolm Bower-Brown, CQC’s director in the North, said: “If we find that the provider is not making the required progress we won’t hesitate to use our legal powers to ensure residents are receiving the service they are entitled to expect.”When Inspectors visited last month, they found Birchlands was:

• Not taking adequate steps to ensure individual care needs were met, and was failing to plan and deliver care and treatment in a way that protected residents’ safety and welfare.

• People were not receiving appropriate care to help pressure sores heal and advice from visiting professionals was not always followed.

Residents told inspectors they were treated with dignity and encouraged to choose how they spent their time, and said they felt safe and could raise concerns with staff.

But the report said records showed “medication was not ordered, recorded, administered or audited properly, which meant people did not always receive their medication safely”.

Residents said they liked the staff, but some were concerned about whether there were enough on duty. The report said: “We spoke to staff who told us that the low staff numbers were impacting on morale and client welfare. Other professionals also raised concern about the home using lots of agency staff and they felt that client care was being compromised.”

Mimosa said in a statement: “The home operates robust systems to ensure the quality of our care provision not only complies but exceeds national standards.

“Therefore we are sorry that in some recent cases this appears to have fallen below that expectation.

“We are working closely with the CQC to address the root causes of the concerns found by the CQC and to ensure that such issues do not arise again.”

The firm said it was “disappointed” the inspection found some pressure sores treatment fell below standards and said residents’ welfare and well-being were staff and managers’ paramount priority.

Kathy Clark, City of York Council’s assistant director of assessment and safeguarding, said it worked with the CQC to ensure homes provided quality care and would support Birchlands to improve.

She said: “As a consequence of the warning notice, City of York Council will increase the frequency of monitoring at this care home. We take any concerns that care home residents and their families report very seriously.”