A GOVERNMENT inspector has revealed the reasons why they condemned a Bournemouth care home as inadequate in all areas.

Among the practices discovered during an inspection at the Reside at Southwood home in Southwood Road, Southbourne, was commode pots which had been emptied into the toilet then being ‘washed out in the bath’ if there was one.

The Care Quality Commission said its inspectors had observed ‘staff ignoring people who were trying to gain their attention’.

“Two health professionals who spent four days in the home, confirmed that they had not witnessed anyone having a bath or shower during their visits,” said the CQC. “They also advised that there was no suitable showering or bathing equipment in the home to enable those who needed hoisting to be bathed or showered safely.”

It said some people had lost weight and ‘may not always have received appropriate food and drink or been supported to eat and drink enough to meet their needs’.

“Between 2 March 2018 and 10 May 2018, 58 accidents or incidents had been recorded,” said the CQC. “Of these, it was recorded that 29 of them had been discovered during routine checks and 12 had been alerted to staff because a sensor alarm mat in the person's room had been activated. Fifty of the incidents noted that people had been found on the floor. Forty six of the incidents occurred between 8pm and 8am.”

Amongst the CQC’s detailed concerns were lack of adequate care plans for residents, ‘systems to manage the administration of medicines (which) were not robust’ and that not all staff had received training in the action to take in the event of an emergency.

Debbie Ivanova, the Care Quality Commission’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said her inspectors had previously identified nine breaches of the regulations at reside at Reside at Southwood in January 2018.

The return inspection, in May, found a ‘lack of progress’ which was ‘clearly unacceptable’. Amongst their concerns, the CQC said that some people may have been illegally deprived of their liberty and not had their human rights respected, although they found staff were kind.

Following the unannounced May inspection, the CQC found that Reside At Southwood was not safe, caring, effective, responsive or well-led.

“During the inspection it was apparent that while staff were doing their upmost to provide a caring service there was no obvious support from the provider so that people were still living in an environment which could have made them vulnerable,” said Ms Ivanova.

“Our inspectors wrote to the provider of the service to express our serious concerns and explain what enforcement action we were considering. The provider subsequently submitted an application to cancel the location of the service and people living in the service were moved out by 27 June 2018.

“While I am concerned that this will have been a difficult time for everyone involved, our first priority is always the welfare of the people who are living at the service. We continued to monitor Reside at Southwood and worked with the statutory agencies to make sure that people living there were moved safely into new services which meet their needs.”

During the time of the inspection, the service was provided by Cheryl Hadland, founder of Tops Day Nurseries.

Her office confirmed that Reside at Southbourne has now closed and declined a request for comment.

However, in a previous statement, Ms Hadland said: “The requirements for providing hospital beds with specialist mattresses, extra training, and sourcing additional staffing in a very challenging job market are also contributing factors. The pressure to provide all this has taken the heart out of the business for us.

"Unfortunately Southwood Lodge was not able to provide what CQC require in the time frame they want it and Southwood were not able to find another provider prepared to take over the location either.

“This decision was not made lightly but we believe that under the circumstances this was the best decision for our residents."

The company runs another care home, Reside at Stour Road in Christchurch. In December 2017 the CQC said it required improvement.