Bolton: Withins Care home in Breightmet ordered to improve by CQC

Withins Residential Home in Breightmet was graded as  ‘requires improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after inspectors raised issues with medicine management and record keeping.

Now management have said an ‘action plan’ has been put in place to improve standards at the home.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission ruled that overall the home “requires improvement” - although it was rated good in three areas - and in response, managers have pledged they have already brought in new plans to raise standards.

Director Samuel Shahbazi said: “Following our inspections  the CQC have advised that we introduce additional risk assessments for those who use our service and to review and expand on our auditing processes for medications and care planning to ensure additional safety.

“An action plan has been developed and implementation has already begun.

“The managing authority would like to reassure those who use our service that we’ve taken the advice from our inspectors seriously and are working with the local quality assurance team in order to ensure the maximum safety of our service users.”

Inspectors ruled that the home must improve in two areas out of five

The inspectors found that medicine systems were not always being used effectively, that in some cases, protocols for medicine as and when required ‘lacked detail’ and that some people’s allergy status was not recorded.

In one case, they say that a resident was described as diabetic, but no risk assessment was in place  to deal with this while another was said to be prone to depressive episodes, but no risk assessment had been completed.

They also found that many of the audits were not ‘robust’ enough.

The CQC reported: “Documents with regard to medicines, risk management and care planning were not always complete and accurate. There was a lack of audits and those in place were not always robust enough to identify and address the issues found during the inspection.”

The home was marked good for being ‘caring’ ‘effective’ and ‘responsive’.

CQC inspectors stated in their report : “People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People we spoke with felt they were well cared for and supported. Communication between the provider and people who used the service and their relatives was good. Complaints were responded to in an appropriate and timely way. The service worked well in partnership with other agencies and professionals.

The inspectors collected positive responses from residents regarding many of these subject matters.

One resident’s comment said: "The girls are nice and don't make us do what we don't want to do.

“They let us get on with life."

Mr Shahbazi says he hopes to see the home secure a higher rating once inspectors return.