An Ayrshire care home has been panned by the Care Inspectorate after they witnessed staff act ‘disrespectfully’ to some residents.
Some staff at Fairknowe House, in Maybole’s Cargill Road, were also criticised for administering the wrong doses of medication, or missing them altogether.
The alarming discoveries were made by the Care Inspectorate during an unannounced visit.
At the time of the inspection there were 29 residents, with physical needs and/or dementia, being supported.
In their report the scrutiny body claimed there were aspects of support that concerned them.
They have now ordered improvements and graded the care home as ‘Weak’ in two categories and ‘Adequate’ in four others.
Their report states: “Staff were generally kind and caring, taking time to ensure people were comfortable with direct care carried out well.
“Whilst most staff treated people with dignity and respect, there were aspects of support that were less respectful.
“This included staff chatting to each other and not including residents when providing support.
“Television channels being changed without the agreement of people and a resident being moved in their chair from behind with no discussion. These actions were not respectful of people.”
The Care Inspectorate also claimed medication was not being administered to an “appropriate standard.”
The report states: “This had included a number of errors which had been notified to the Care Inspectorate during the previous month.
“This included wrong dosages of medication or missed medication. Errors which could impact on peoples wellbeing.”
Staffing was also listed as another concern with the Care Inspectorate noting that there were periods of time when lounges remained without staff presence for “over 20 minutes,” meaning some people could not independently seek staff support and had no means of summoning assistance- as no nurse call system was available to them.
The Care Inspectorate said this could “cause distress” to people if they needed support.
The report goes on: “Some staff commented that low staffing levels meant that people’s care and support was basic with few opportunities to spend with residents in meaningful ways. This was also commented on by relatives.
“The service had a significant staff turnover across different departments.”
There were some positives in the report, however.
Inspectors revealed how they spoke to six people living at Fairknowe and they commented favourably on the care they received.
Some said they “got on well” with staff, while one person said that there was “a lot of different staff.”
Among the improvements to be made are to the care home’s medication management, staffing levels and to ensure that ensure people are “supported well” and treated with “dignity and respect at all times."
Care home operators, Mead Medical Services Ltd, did not respond to our request for comment.
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