AN ASCOT care home slammed by health watchdog inspectors at the end of last year as ‘inadequate’ has been found to still require urgent improvement despite being placed in special measures. 

A report published on March 8 following a reinspection of Sandridge House in High Street at the beginning of January revealed medical experts from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) felt the nursing home, caring for 33 patients at the time, did not provide safe or consistently effective care.

At its last inspection over December 2 and 3, inspectors found eight breaches of the Health and Social Care Act Regulations 2014 and one breach of the Care Quality Commission Regulations 2009, highlighting that people’s care was seriously unsafe and ineffective.

They found people did not receive safe care and hazards flagged up in the December feedback were not addressed quickly enough to prevent risk, including repeated falls, the deployment of staff to ensure people’s safety, the maintenance of a safe environment and care planning. 

People continued to have injuries resulting from falls which inspectors found was due to failure to assess, mitigate and review risks for people at high risk of falling. 

Though care plans were reviewed, they were not specific enough for individual risks and people did not receive consistently effective care, in that people’s food and fluid provision was not always sufficient for their needs.
Despite more fluids being offered to people, there were periods where staff failed to pay attention and focussed on tasks instead.

Following the December inspection, the care home agreed to hire a fourth staff member to provide safe nighttime care for people and it agreed to put together an urgent care action plan, which was at first found to be lacking, which it submitted every Monday to the CQC between the December and January inspections. 

Naila Nanji, group manager, said: "We have already made significant improvements since the inspection took place in early January and have been working to an action plan in conjunction with the CQC, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and Bracknell Forest Borough Council.

"The safety and well-being of our residents is our primary concern.

"Furthermore, all major concerns have been addressed and we consider that none of the residents are at any significant risk.

"We have a new senior management team in place since the inspection and their primary focus is on quality of care being delivered to our residents and they are observing and monitoring this daily. The standards of cleanliness has improved considerably and there is particular attention to good practices and stricter guidelines within infection control.

"We are keeping regular contact with all of the residents and relatives to update them of the ongoing progress with improving care standards and encouraging their feedback and suggestions."