Four Seasons Care Home loses its good rating after unannounced inspection

The Care Quality Commission inspected Four Seasons Care Home in Breightmet, which provides residential, nursing and dementia car, and slammed management of the home as "inadequate".

Inspectors downgraded the home from good to requires improvement.

CQC inspectors were drafted in to examine falls and medicine risks at the home ­— with inspectors reporting one person was "left at risk of harm" and raised a safeguarding concern with the local authority.

The CQC report published recently following the inspection in July, stated: "The inspection was prompted in part by notification of two specific incidents, following which two people using the service died. These incidents are subject to on-going enquiries.

"As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of these incidents.

"The information CQC received about the incidents indicated concerns about the management of falls from moving and handling equipment and the unsafe management of medicines. This inspection examined

those risks."

Owners of the home, HC -One say there is no current investigation underway and say that "immediate" improvements have been made

All areas of the home are said to "require improvement" with management being described as inadequate.

"The systems to monitor falls were not always used effectively at the home and there was a lack of oversight of managing the associated risk; we raised a safeguarding alert with the local authority in respect of this," reported CQC inspectors, who found that several falls sustained by one person had not been "promptly" recorded and risk assessments and care plans had not been updated in a "timely way".

But they added: "Following a serious incident, we saw a new system of moving and handling assessments had been introduced. This was more robust, up to date, and matched the care being provided, which we observed."

Inspectors found that "medicines were not always managed safely".

"Day-to-day clinical and operational leadership of staff was not effective, and the provider had failed to provide sufficient oversight to recognise and respond to emerging issues identified at the inspection," reported the CQC, "However, during the inspection we were reassured that the provider and manager took these issues seriously, and immediately put measures in place to respond to and rectify the issues we found."

They added:"We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner."

The Four Seasons has had a troubled history being placed into special measures in January 2016 before making significant improvement and was rated good in July of last year.

A spokesperson for the home said:“The health and wellbeing of everyone we support is always our number one priority and we were hugely saddened by the two incidents.

“While we were disappointed by the CQC’s findings following the inspection in July, we were pleased that inspectors acknowledged that immediate improvements were made in key areas identified following these incidents.

“Since these historic incidents took place, we have worked hard to learn from what happened. For example, we have a highly experienced turnaround manager at the home, who is being supported by our Clinical Quality Team, to ensure we continue to maintain improvements, including in medicine management as well as moving and handling techniques.

“We continue to work closely with the relevant authorities as we make and sustain improvements. We have already made significant progress and are confident this will be recognised at the next inspection.”

A spokesperson for Bolton Council said:“We are aware of the findings of the report and we are working with both the provider and the CQC to address any concerns.”