The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has downgraded the rating for Orchard House Care Centre on the Isle of Wight from ‘Good’ to ‘Inadequate’ following an inspection in February.
Orchard House Care Centre is a residential care home run by Barchester Healthcare Homes Limited. CQC carried out the inspection after receiving concerns about people’s care and support, risk management, escalation of health deterioration, and leadership and staff culture.
Inspectors found the home was in breach of seven regulations, covering person-centred care, dignity and respect, consent, and staffing. CQC has also asked Orchard House Care Centre for an action plan setting out how it will address concerns in these four areas.
For three of those breaches, CQC has served 3 warning notices to the service to focus the attention of leaders on providing safe care and treatment, safeguarding and good management to the service.
CQC has rated Orchard House Care Centre inadequate for being safe and effective. Caring, responsive and well-led have all been rated requires improvement.
Neil Cox, CQC’s deputy director of operations in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said:
“When we inspected Orchard House Care Centre, we found leaders didn’t have a firm enough grip on what was happening in the home, and that had a direct impact on the people living there.
“Inspectors saw residents left exposed and undignified with their clothing displaced in communal areas, people calling out in distress who were ignored or met with dismissive responses. One person had written ‘HELP’ on their bedroom wall and told inspectors they were frightened; no one should ever feel afraid in their own home.
Article continues below this advertisement “Residents weren’t always getting enough food and fluids. One person told our inspectors they were hungry and thirsty, and records showed they’d received less than half the recommended fluid intake they required by late evening. Another person lost nearly 3 kilograms over four months as staff weren’t monitoring their nutritional intake or fortifying their meals with the calories they needed to stay healthy.
“Safety systems that should have protected people weren’t working. Safeguarding concerns weren’t always reported to the local authority, and we raised those issues directly with them after the inspection. Medicines were left unsecured, and emergency documents didn’t always accurately reflect people’s allergies, which could have led to serious harm.
“We did see some positive things. Some staff clearly knew the people they cared for well, and relatives described kind and supportive care at times. But those good moments weren’t consistent enough, and that inconsistency comes down to leadership.
“We’ve told Orchard House Care Centre what it must improve, and we’ll continue to monitor it closely to make sure people are kept safe.”
Inspectors found:
- Leaders didn’t consistently identify or act on safeguarding concerns three staff members told inspectors they had reported alleged abuse, but managers had not recorded these on the safeguarding tracker or notified the local authority, leaving people at risk.
- Staff left medicines unsecured, with the medicines room unlocked and a medicine trolley unattended in a corridor with the key in the lock, increasing the risk of misuse or harm.
- Staff did not ensure people’s physical health was monitored and escalated when they were showing signs they were unwell.
- Staff did not respond respectfully to people in distress and sometimes dismissed their concerns, even mimicking a resident’s vocabulary while they were upset. Staff did not consistently treat people with dignity, leaving some exposed in communal areas.
However, inspectors also found:
- Some relatives described Orchard House Care Centre as supportive and kind, particularly during difficult transitions into the home
- Staff adapted their communication using pictorial aids and body language to support residents with cognitive or language barriers, and information was available in a range of accessible formats
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the coming days.
Absolutely disgusting that those poor residents pay very good money to be looked after and treated with respect and dignity yet they have been failed on every level? If someone hadn’t reported them to CQC this would still be going on? The staff who have behaved in an appalling way to these poor vulnerable residents should be sacked immediately not still be working there? They should all be ashamed of themselves as they will be old one day and will expect to be looked after???
Barchester charge enough money so they need to be held accountable.
The website also needs changing for the CQC rating as it is still showing the wrong rating and the inspection was in Feb it’s now nearly May.
Thank you IE for letting us all know
once again how our older generation are let down when they deserve the utmost respect.
Appalling to read that this has been happening
All the care homes should be run by the council, you cannot run a care home as a business, it should be a public service with no one raking off the profit.
Don’t forget that the Leader of the IW Council, Phil Jordan, owns and runs St Vincent’s Care Home at Binstead.
People lack care and compassion hence sloppy service.
That is a very sweeping statement, there are good and bad people in most walks of life.You must be a complete paragon of virtue ( or something!)
Personally I wouldn’t put a loved one in such a place.
Do what other cultures do, care for your loved ones, many
people take the easy option when it gets to such stages in
life and then show up when loved ones pass for what they can get. SHOCKING.
The company that ran Orchard House – BARCHESTER – sold to an US Company last October for 5.2 billion pounds.
Self funding residents would be paying £2000 a week to Barchester for their care.
It is the same for all the other Barchester homes – including Vecta House in Newport.
The company trades on absolutely wonderful, hard working staff.
At the end of the day it is always down to money.
Care homes should actually be run by a charity, not the council as the council will make cut backs to save money a charity will not.
Health should not be profit driven at all. Like water and shelter and food.
To prioritise money over human health just ensures disaster. In homes, in hospitals, in every aspect of healthcare. Our government needs to change so much about the country. Take away greedy shareholders, get us back to fair treatment.
If entrepreneurs want to make millions let them do it in trade, produce and sell. Not in dealing health.
Care is big business, big profits, and standards drop lower and lower except for the rich. More cutbacks, more profits, less care, less time, less dignity, less success for patients, service users, sick and old and vulnerable people.
Its vile.
The 1% could change the world if they chose, and not even notice any change to their ridiculous luxury. But they dont.
Its insane that we live in one of the top ten richest countries and have people starving, alone, lacking basic care, and nobody does a thing.
This shabby home is a symptom of what happens when money is priority.
And council is guilty, easier to give permission to the multi national profit driven companies than provide proper care that our elderly people deserve. NHS doing the same driven by governmebt cutbacks forcing our nhs out because it doesnt line their pockets. Lots of these residents fought wars for us to sit around complaining. They fought for a country that was able to keep people safe. We are throwing that away day by day.
Take out the need to profit and suddenly theres enough money to pay staff well. To have enough staff. To improve people’s lives. Money put back into the home, investment in health not into shareholders.
Capitalism at its worst.
More persons of culture are required to do such jobs
majority of them are more caring.
FACT!
The NHS are no different, from what I have seen over the years
it is shocking the care patients receive.
I would give a rating of 15-20% of staff are caring and do the job
because they CARE, the other 80-85% are only doing it because there
are no other jobs available.
Shocking but true!