A CARE service has described being “significantly stretched” by staff absences brought on by the Covid pandemic after an inspection saw them rated ‘inadequate’.
The overall rating for Horizon Homecare, based in New Orchard, Poole, fell from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in January.
Horizon said they “worked tirelessly” during this time to ensure client needs were met but respected the findings.
The domiciliary care service provides personal care, including night-time visits, to around 350 adults living in their own homes in the Swanage, Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch areas.
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The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection in response to concerns about the management of care being delivered.
Amanda Stride, CQC’s head of adult social care inspection, said: “When we inspected Horizon Homecare, we were very concerned that there weren’t enough staff to care for people safely. Yet despite this, the service was still taking on new packages of care.
“As a result, staff were sometimes booked to be in more than one place at once, which meant people’s care calls were often cut short, and sometimes staff were late, or missed appointments completely. This put people at risk of neglect and harm.”
One relative said their mother was left sitting on a toilet for more than two hours while waiting for a carer who was late to arrive.
Ms Stride added: “People told us the care staff they knew were friendly and caring but they didn’t feel safe when these carers weren’t on duty. In some cases, a male member of staff was sent to care for people who requested a female carer, which resulted in one lady waking up to find a man standing over her bed which was incredibly upsetting for her.”
In a statement provided to the Daily Echo, a Horizon spokesperson said: “Horizon prides itself in offering a very robust care service to our clients. During the pandemic, like many providers in the sector, our regular staffing resources were significantly stretched due to staff absence.
“During this very challenging time, we worked tirelessly in continuing to provide round-the-clock care services to our clients.
“We recognise that the most recent CQC inspection has concluded that there are areas for improvement within the service and found that, in some cases, our expected standards had not been met historically.
“We are continuing to work as a service to ensure that robust and prompt improvements have been implemented to ensure that Horizon is operating in compliance with the Regulations and that our clients are safe.”
Horizon sent the CQC an action plan and have already implemented several recommended improvements.
The CQC says it will continue to monitor the service.
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