Southsea care home Quality Care Management Limited branded 'inadequate' after staff fail to treat dementia patients with 'dignity and respect'

Monitors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected Quality Care Management Limited’s service in Spencer Road, Southsea.

The home provides care for up to 38 people, aged 55 and over, with most residents living there having dementia or another cognitive impairment.

The CQC’s latest probe – which took place in May – highlighted ‘systemic’ failings in how the home was run, with ‘five breaches of regulations’ being uncovered.

In a damning report, the home was rated inadequate for being caring and well-led, and ‘requiring improvement’ for being effective, safe and responsive.

The latest CQC report highlighted how the care home ‘failed to ensure effective oversight of service provision’.

Quality and safety monitoring systems were branded ‘ineffective’ in identifying and directing the service to act upon risks to people who used the service.

The report said: ‘People were at risk of neglect and unsafe or inappropriate care or treatment. We observed staff ignoring people and poor moving and handling practices.

‘People were not always treated with dignity and respect; some people told us staff were not always kind to them.

‘Although family members were positive about the service, we observed occasions when staff treated people without compassion and kindness.

‘Staff said they knew how to prevent and report abuse. We were concerned however, that staff practice which amounted to omissions of care had not been considered as neglect.’

Staff were observed ‘ignoring’ residents and not speaking or engaging with them during meal times.

At one point, one staff member was seen to be ‘just shovelling’ spoonfuls of food into a resident’s mouth, the report said.

Staff were also criticised for not showing much sympathy to residents showing signs of ‘being scared and anxious’.

One person reached for a staff member’s hand for reassurance but the ‘staff member swiftly and forcefully pushed the person's hand away,’ inspectors reported.

As well as concerns over how caring staff were, inspectors also criticised the home for its leadership, which had plunged from being ‘good’ to being ‘inadequate’.

The CQC said this demonstrated there were ‘widespread and significant shortfalls’ in leadership.

‘Leaders and the culture they created did not assure the delivery of high-quality care,’ inspectors concluded.