The Moorings Care Home in Cowes has been placed into special measures after inspectors uncovered a catalogue of failings, including residents being left in wet clothing, spending weeks with virtually no social interaction, and living in rooms smelling strongly of urine.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated The Moorings as inadequate following an inspection in June, identifying 11 breaches of regulations and serving the provider with 2 warning notices.
The home, which provides residential care for older people, is now in special measures and will be closely monitored while urgent improvements are made.
Inspectors found repeated failures to treat residents with dignity and respect.
One resident was left sitting in wet clothing for around 10 minutes after staff had been alerted, while another was found asleep at a dining table with their clothing exposing them without staff noticing.
Inspectors also found evidence of staff carrying out personal care without first waking residents or explaining what they were doing.
Concerns were also raised over the lack of meaningful activities available to those living at the home. A review of 6 weeks’ worth of activity records found 3 residents had no recorded social activity whatsoever, while another had just 5 minutes of interaction logged during the entire period.
Instead, inspectors said people spent most of their time watching television, remaining in their bedrooms or receiving personal care, with very little meaningful engagement or time outdoors.
Inspectors were also forced to intervene after discovering one resident’s bedroom smelled strongly of urine, requesting the individual be moved to a clean room.
The CQC report says staff were not cleaning moving and handling equipment between uses, had left out-of-date food in storage and were not ensuring bedding was cleaned promptly.
Inspectors also questioned the accuracy of care records after discovering the home’s only bath had been out of use for months. Despite this, records showed one resident had supposedly received 24 baths during that time.
The inspection also uncovered serious failures in how incidents and safeguarding concerns were managed.
The CQC found safeguarding incidents were not always reported, notifiable events were not shared with the regulator and accident reporting was inconsistent.
In one case, managers acknowledged a resident had been found on a crash mat ‘nearly every other day’, yet these incidents had not been recorded because staff did not recognise them as reportable events.
Inspectors also found evidence of a blame culture within the home, raising concerns that staff may have felt unable to report issues which could improve residents’ care.
Neil Cox, CQC’s Deputy Director for Adult Social Care in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, has said:
“What we found at The Moorings was deeply concerning. The issues we identified were widespread and serious, and they mirrored historic failings leaders were already aware of.
“Despite a change of ownership, numerous engagement meetings with CQC, and reports detailing the issues for improvement under the previous owner, leaders hadn’t used these resources to provide people living there with the standard of care they deserve.”
“We also saw examples of people not being treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. One person remained in wet clothing for around 10 minutes after staff had been told about it.
“Another person was found asleep at a dining table with their clothing exposing them, and staff hadn’t noticed. One relative told us they didn’t feel confident their loved one was safe and said they wouldn’t recommend the home.
“These failings point to serious problems with leadership. Risks that were obvious and could have been prevented weren’t identified or acted on.
“The people living at The Moorings deserved much better care, especially in a place they called home.
“We’ve placed the service into special measures and will continue to monitor it closely to make sure people are safe whilst urgent and lasting improvements are made.”
The CQC rated The Moorings Care Home inadequate in all 5 inspection categories – safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Special measures involve enhanced monitoring by the regulator and a structured timeframe for improvements. If sufficient progress is not made, the CQC can take further enforcement action.
And the residents are paying in excess of £1000 a week to be treated like this!! Does CQC check where all the money is going and how the Owners/Managers are living?
This is appalling news. The CQC should have more powers to sanction or fine owners of this type of accommodation. It’s not right that the fees charged for residents equal such shoddy treatment. You wouldn’t want your parents living here, would you?
Are there any decent care homes on the island.
Very worrying, everyone will get old je day and many
families are keen on dumping their parents in homes
when they are no longer a use to them.
Strange but VERY true.
This is history repeating itself sadly. Despite new owners , the same is happening.
I feel very sorry for all of the residents and hope they find somewhere else to live. This place should be closed down
And these bastard companies charge over £4/5/6 Grand a month!! total utter ripoff funny in Scotland its free so people don’t lose all their money.These owners have multiple homes racking in £100s of thousands a year enjoying the very wealthy lifestyle.
Since the takeover what ive witnessed is the standard has completely dropped from bad to horrendous, these owners should not be allowed to run these types of business
Do you actually have family in the home? I do and she has always received good care although she is bedridden which is not the fault of the home
Those poor elderly people. My heart breaks for them.
Those carers should be infront of the justice system and charged.
Who was the so called manager in that place raking off the elderly and neglecting them all.
The council should review the home every 3 months to ensure improvements are made. Saying that the home should be closed is not the answer since this could mean our relatives being transferred to the mainland
It used to be a calling to be a nurse or a carer
nowdays they just do it because there are no other jobs
out there for them.
Families need to think twice before off loading their loved ones
in to such places.
This place should be closed straightaway. All the staff concerned should also be prosecuted. Scum the lot of them. If Scotland can care for their elderly, why cant we?.
So much for the UNITED KINGDOM.