THE CQC AND THE IDEAL CONCEAL

Ideal Care care homes were one of the company’s we exposed in our report “CQC An Going Concern“. This report and other serious issues were raised with Jeremy Hunt and to date we have not had a response.
We learnt this week that Ideal Care Homes had lost its recent court case with CQC regarding the inadequate rating giving to Ashwood Grange in Dewsbury
However we expose yet again the whole truth about a care homes secret history and how the CQC could have stopped the harm years earlier.

The current CQC page for Ashwood Grange gives no link or clue to any earlier inspection reports, only a persistent search of the CQC archive, which most people would not even attempt as CQC tells them there is no history to be searched for.

The information that the CQC have withheld from the public include the following inspection reports.
Inspection report May 2012
Summery.
Not enough staff resulting in residents being placed at high risk of harm including,
Risk assessments not carried out
People being left without food and drink.
People left at risk unsupervised for long periods including inspectors having to intervene in a resident on resident potential assault as no staff available to help.
Staff deployment risks

Inspection Report July 2012 (12 weeks later)
Five standards inspected and judged met

Inspection Report September 2014 (14 Months Later)
Five Standards Checked and met But STAFFING LEVELS NOT INSPECTED

Inspection Report 4 January 2014 (2 Years and 4 Months Later) The home is only being inspected because the CQC are told of concerns. Again CQC react after the harm is done.
This states the home is so bad it is in special measures and if it does not improve it may be closed however it is re-registered to an alleged new provider and the clock stops with the re-registration.
This in effect means that the below listed issues are not addressed. I believe the following evidence left people at serious risk of harm.
Relatives and staff said they were not enough staff to care for people.
Staff were moved around the home on every shift and did not even know how many people were on each unit, how to evacuate should there be a fire or who was in the home. There were insufficient fire marshals.
There were seriously high levels of witnessed fall and examples such as in a 17 day period there were 35 falls and in another example 43 falls in one month. Some falls resulting in serious injury’s warranting hospital treatment.
Some staff say they had reported concerns but felt they were not listened too.
Lack Of activities.
People at risk of weight loss
Call bells not answered
One staff member tells CQC ” Extra staff were brought in for today’s inspection”
At 2.30 staff were asking colleagues for support as had been on shift since 7.45 without food.
The Manager produced a detailed dependency chart showing staffing levels were allegedly correct.
There were no staff in sight for long periods and one resident with dementia was removing food from a dustbin
People were breathing in the fumes from strong air fresheners which were used to mask the smell of mal-odours.
Staff said there concerns were ignored.
People left in bedrooms without care
I note the staff are very caring but they are working in appalling conditions without the staff numbers to do even the basics

The home is re registered and of course the issues are never addressed, the next 3 reports list the avoidable harm and neglect that always results from lack of staff. The contents of these three reports exactly mirror all those issued raid in the buried reports. Of course it would not reflect well on the CQC if all the reports were in one place as people may ask why has this been allowed to continue since 2012, 6 years of high risk of harm.
Now CQC say action will be taken as the home is in special measures, only that is what they said last time too.
I do wonder why Ideal care homes took CQC to court they could have paid CQC a fee to re-register and have buried the latest evidence too.

Given the number of people admitted to hospital from care homes like this, is giving social care more money really the answer, that money will never reach the front line.
Last weeks care home fire made the news. Lets hope such a tragedy never happens at Ashford Grange.

Eileen Chubb Copyright Feb 9th 2018