A Hedon care home has had its overall rating downgraded from “requires improvement” to “inadequate” after the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection.

Hawthorn House care home was found during the inspection to not be protecting people from the risk of infection, had poorly completed accident and incident forms and medical records were not always accurate.

The care home’s manager, who had only been in post a fortnight before the inspection, has said a number of improvements have since been made, including over infection risk control.

Read more: Hull teenager and dad-to-be told he only has months left to live in devastating diagnosis

Hawthorn House is a care home with 22 beds. Two CQC inspectors visited the home over two days in March for a focused inspection. The latest inspection found that Hawthorn House remained in breach of regulations relating to safe care and treatment and good governance, which it had been found in breach of at the last inspection in November 2020. It was no longer in breach of a regulation concerning the need for consent.

The inspectors rated it as “inadequate” over safety and being well-led and consequently downgraded the care home’s overall rating to “inadequate” as well. People were not protected from infection, with not all staff able to demonstrate the correct procedure for taking on and off personal protective equipment (PPE), and not all staff were seen wearing face coverings in line with government guidance. No recorded pre-entry checks of visitors entering the service were taken and the provider was unable to show that guidance over staff testing for Covid-19 was followed. A staff member was found on the second day to have not completed a lateral flow test before starting work. A used continence aid was disposed of in a bin with no lid.

Other issues identified in the inspection report include:

• “Consideration of the risks posed to people by pull cords hanging from the ceilings on the first floor, a water leak, and the use of portable heaters around the home had not been identified or assessed”.
• There were discrepancies with the use of topical medicines and transdermal patches. There was no record where one person had a transdermal patch applied to their body and another was prescribed a topical cream to be applied to an affected area but recent medical records did not include guidance on where the affected area was.
• “Monitoring of care plans had failed to identify an unplanned weight loss of one person since October 2021”.
• “An effective system was not in place to monitor accidents and incidents which occurred within the service”.

The care home remains rated as “good” in the caring category and people felt safe, with one resident telling inspectors, “it’s lovely here”. Concerns about staffing levels raised at the last inspection were also found to be resolved. Other positive elements of the report include:

• A new manager had “very recently joined” and “was supportive of the inspection and open and honest in relation to areas of concern we identified during our visits”. Improvements were made during and after the visits, including implementing missing emergency evacuation plans.
• “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.”
• Staff said they had received safeguarding training and were able to show how to identify and report abuse.

Hawthorn House was approached for comment. In response, Michelle Bonde, the relatively new manager of the home, emphasised that improvements had been made since the CQC inspection. She said: “I have been in position from the end of February 2022, the inspection fell when I had only been in post a couple of weeks, and at present I am not the registered manager.

“I had not had time to go through all the issues I wanted to by the time of the CQC inspection. However since the inspection we have made many improvements:

“All visitors are asked for a LFT before entering the building, their temperature is taken and they have to sign in and out and must wear a face mask. All staff have had donning and doffing training, PPE wearing is monitored/audited by myself daily, and my staff are attending infection control training.”

She said new software had also been purchased to help with a number of tasks.

To read the CQC inspection report of the home in full, click here.

Read next: