12.08.15
CQC will always take ‘tough action’ over poor care – Sutcliffe
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned it will always take tough action against providers that deliver “unacceptable” care, the regulator’s chief inspector of adult social care has warned.
Last week, the CQC took legal action to stop The Old Village School Nursing Home, run by Old Village Care Limited, in Bedfordshire, from providing services with immediate effect because of “serious concerns” about the service and the risks it presented to people using it.
The provider had been rated as Inadequate and placed in special measures after the regulator carried out an unannounced inspection in June, following concerns about the quality of care.
However, after carrying out a further inspection to check whether improvements had been made, the regulator has taken action to prevent the nursing home from being able to accommodate residents in the interests of their safety.
Andrea Sutcliffe, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care at CQC, said: “The examples of deteriorating care in this case, many of which we are unable to report on until the legal process is fully complete, are simply dreadful and I am appalled that the provider allowed the situation to get this bad.
“When we rated The Old Village School Nursing Home as Inadequate, we were very clear what was needed to improve the care for people living there as we want services to improve.
“Taking action to move people from their home urgently as a last resort is always a difficult judgement. It is our expectation that providers should use our inspection reports to get to grips with their problems and ensure they sort them out.”
Working with Bedfordshire Council, Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), people were moved from the home last Friday and Saturday as safely as possible.
Ahead of the recent Health+Care Show, Sutcliffe had told NHE’s sister title Public Sector Executive that she would always prefer a service provider to improve and “for the people who are using services not to suffer the disruption that would happen if a service closed”.