A year on the people living in this care home are still at risk of harm

A Croxteth care home remains in special measures after social care inspectors found a “repeated failure” to ensure safe, high quality care.

Stonedale Lodge was placed under intense scrutiny after a damning inspection by Care Quality Commission (CQC) officials last June, entering special measures for the second time in 18 months. As a result, a second follow-up inspection was held six months later to assess progress towards providing an improved service.

A year on from that initial inspection, CQC inspectors have published their latest findings in which they said those living at the home remained “at risk of harm.”

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When the home was placed into special measures for a second time, Advinia - the firm operating the home - said they disputed elements of the inspection carried out and initially said it would seek legal means to challenge those findings. A fresh report has set out how during their lengthy inspection just before Christmas, a litany of issues were identified.

This included one person who had experienced a choking incident which had not been recorded on their choking risk assessment. The document said: “It was not always possible to tell from this person's food diary what texture of food they were being given, as there was no consistent recording of this.”

Inspectors also identified that the more than 120 occupants of the home were not always protected from the risk of injury following falls. Concerns were also raised regarding the handling of medicines.

In some cases, prescribed medicines were not always available to be given to people as there was no stock in the home. This placed people at risk of harm.

Becauase of this, the home was found to be in breach of regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Issues were also identified around personal hygiene of service users and their surroundings. In some cases, the inspectors found some people's teeth did not look clean and records for care evidenced people were not always getting offered support with this within reasonable times.

The report said: “For example, some records stated people had been offered support with oral care at 12am which was recorded as declined, due to the person being asleep.” Additionally, people’s pillowcases across the units were found to be stained.

Each bed had been made, meaning the pillowcases were not changed. Despite this, family members and residents reported being happy with the home and satisfied at the level of care in some cases found by the CQC.

A spokesperson for Advinia said: "The safety and wellbeing of residents is our priority and, despite the findings of the CQC, we maintain that the home delivers an overall good standard of care, as do our local authority partners and those who access the service. Like all care providers, improvements can, and should, be made and we have already formulated and implemented a robust action plan to address outstanding issues raised in this report.

"Meanwhile, it was pleasing to see that the kindness and the caring nature of our dedicated colleagues was recognised by the inspectors. We will now continue to work with our partners in the CQC, and the Local Authority, to evidence the improvements made at the home, in the weeks and months ahead.”

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