York care home rated inadequate by inspectors

St Catherine's Care Home in East Lane, Shipton by Beningbrough received the lowest mark possible from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for its safety.

The rating came as part of an overall 'requires improvement' verdict for the home after its inspection on February 16.

St Catherine's, whose residents include the elderly and those living with dementia, was also marked requires improvement for effectiveness, responsiveness and being well-led, but good under caring.

Its report stated: "We found that there had been occasions when people had not received safe care and treatment and this had impacted on their wellbeing. Several of these matters are still under investigation."

Inspectors added: "There had not always been enough suitably competent, skilled and experienced staff on duty to meet people’s needs."

Elsewhere it stated: "The culture at the service had not always been open and transparent.

"Staff described a past culture of ‘sugar coating’ or ‘hiding’ things and during 2015 incidents had not always been appropriately reported to external organisations.

"The new manager was open and honest about the service and the improvements that were needed.

"People using the service, relatives and staff were complimentary about the new manager, their approach and the changes and improvements they were making.

Inspectors also noted: "We saw that mealtimes on The Mews (dementia unit) were noisy, cramped and chaotic.

"The current arrangements did not support people living with dementia to have a pleasant meal time experience.

Rachel Beckett, managing director of owner Wellburn Care Homes, said: "With regards to our last CQC inspection at St Catherine's we are not in contention with the report and one of the important factors for ourselves, is there was no adverse criticism about our care provision which is at the heart of our business.

"We have recognised all the points raised and any immediate concerns have been addressed already, the rest of the report we are working through with CQC and we hope to be in a position to invite CQC back for another inspection as soon as practically possible."

Abbeyfield House - York, a sheltered housing complex in Regency Mews, Dringhouses was also rated ‘requires improvement’ following an inspection on March 31 and April 4.

The complex, which is run by The Abbeyfield York Society, was marked requires improvement under the 'safe' and 'well-led' questions, but good for how effective, caring and responsive it was.

Its CQC report stated: "During this inspection we found that people using the service were consistently positive about the care and support provided. "However, we identified that records were not well maintained.

"Risk assessments were not consistently implemented, contained limited information and were not always updated as people’s needs changed.

"We were concerned that important information about people’s needs was not immediately available to new staff.

"Alongside this we identified concerns around supervision records, recruitment records, medication administration records and accident and incident records."

A statement from the home's owners read: "At The Abbeyfield Society, we take CQC inspection results very seriously. Our focus is to always provide the highest levels of quality care for every resident who lives with us.

"We have already begun looking into the two areas highlighted in order to further improve and strengthen our procedures, and how we can do this in the shortest period of time.

"Although the service received a ‘requires improvement’ as its overall rating, it received a ‘good’ rating for three out of the five areas inspected by the CQC.

"The service was deemed to be ‘effective’, ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ and The York Society fully focuses its efforts on bringing the other two areas up to this standard."