Care watchdog uncovers abuse allegations at Southsea care home

Inspectors visiting Arborough House in Southsea have deemed the care home inadequate and placed it into special measures following a scathing report.

The report revealed a resident at the home, in Yarborough Road, made four allegations of concern about staff this July. There were no records of an investigation.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors – who had been tipped off about concerns at the home ahead of inspection – also discovered accounts of abuse from one resident to others in the home, which included the throwing of furniture.

It was rated inadequate in two of five key areas.

Inspectors found multiple breaches of the Health and Social Care Act, the report said.

An inspector wrote: ‘People may not have always been protected from the risk of potential abuse or harm.

‘One person’s daily records reflected incidents that could constitute abuse towards others.

‘For example, records stated they had been both verbally and physically aggressive towards other people living at the home.

‘This included throwing furniture at one person and “making the ladies scared”.’

The report – which was published on October 20 – added: ‘We found reports whereby a person had made allegations about staff on four occasions in July 2017 but there were not records to demonstrate these concerns had been investigated and reported.’

It followed an unannounced inspection on August 2 at the care home.

In addition to the allegations issues, it also flagged up unexplained gaps in the recording of medicines, outdated fire assessments and a lack of training or risk plan in place to assist a resident who has diabetes.

Despite the report, residents of Arborough House told inspectors that they were content at the care home.

One said: ‘I have no worries and no-one troubles me here.’

Another resident said: ‘We are very safe here, no complaints.’

At the time of inspection, there were 12 people living at the home, some of whom living with dementia.

In total, the inspectors found seven breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Previously, the care home had been rated requires improvement at its last inspection last July.

The News approached both the manager and the owner of the care home for comment.

Neither had responded to multiple requests fro comment by the time of going to print last night.

The full report is available at cqc.org.uk