Care Home Blame Failings on 'Brexit Uncertainties'

Thursday, 20th June 2019

The Care Home in Wallasey was rated as "Requiring Improvement" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) during their visit in May 2019.

Inspectors said residents had to wait an hour to be taken to the toilet and some were left in bed until midday. Inspectors found that The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) was not always followed to protect vulnerable people's human rights and that staff failed to get proper consent to administer medicine. The report also stated that planning for people with dementia was "poor", and there was "little evidence" that people's end-of-life wishes were discussed.

A spokesperson from the care home told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the social care sector was "in crisis, with many aspects outside of the control of individual care homes". They said recruitment was "increasingly problematic" because "Brexit uncertainties" had "reduced the numbers of potential recruits" adding that "There are 40,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS and securing such staff to work in care homes is increasingly challenging, often forcing managers to rely on agency staff."

There were 29 residents at Mariners Park Care home during the inspection. They were being looked after by nine members of staff in the morning, eight in the afternoon and four at night. The care home state that said this number was "significantly above" the hours funded by the Council. It was added that all excess hours are funded by the care home's charity who have spent £360,000 over the last year on additional wages.

The care home said it had produced a plan to address the CQC's concerns, including recruiting extra staff, and this had been accepted by the regulator.