Horncastle Care Home

Sussex Healthcare, Horncastle Closure.
By Eileen Chubb ©

Last night BBC Southeast news ran the story that Horncastle care home was closed at short notice. This home is owned by Sussex Healthcare was one of that company’s we raised concerns about in 2015. Other homes in the group are under investigation by the police.

This latest closure was at very short notice and late in the evening which is likely to have caused real distress to people. If the home is not providing safe care then the local authority should have drafted in staff to ensure safe care until people could be moved with the minimum of distress.

The CQC said an August inspection found major failings at the home and that the CQC had been asking the home to take action for some time.
The CQC quotes to the BBC are pictured,

Yet a look at the CQC web-site has only two inspections listed, the first of these is dated January 2017 and rates the home good in all areas.
The second report is dated April 2018 and rates the home good on caring and being responsive and requiring improvement in the other 3 areas.

This means in the space of around 16 weeks this home has gone from requiring improvement to so bad it needs to close without notice. The CQC web-site gives no information on this.

The CQC statement to the BBC that “Over a period of time we have called for significant improvements” Yet the CQC web-site gives the public a very different assessment of the home.