An inspection of a Brightlingsea care home found an unclean kitchen, residents unable to have a bath or shower for weeks, blocked fire exits and errors with medicines.
Oaklands Care Home on Church Road was given an overall “Inadequate” rating by the Care Quality Commission after a two-day inspection in March 2024 and has been told to make improvements. Inspectors said the home, which was looking after 13 people at the time, required improvement in its Effective, Caring and Responsive categories, while its Safe and Well Led categories were deemed inadequate.
At the time of the inspection, the home – run by Primos Care Ltd was being renovated but building work was not being managed well. “Fire exits were blocked with equipment. Mop heads placed on window ledges to dry. Building equipment such as glue, paint and decorating equipment stored in bathrooms and the cupboard which contained all cleaning substances was not locked and easily accessible to people,” said the report.
One resident told inspectors: “I really like a bath, not had a shower or bath for weeks due to the works in the bathrooms. I have to have bed washes. No choice about this.”
On both days of the site visit, inspectors found the kitchen to be “unclean, with crowded worktops, damaged cupboards, and heavily used chopping boards”. They added: “We found vegetables not being stored correctly, foods past their use by date, evidence of cross contamination in the fridge. We found the hand washing facilities in the kitchen could not be accessed due to overcrowded worktop and floor space. This meant service users [residents] were placed at risk of harm from infection.”
Inspectors said: “An agency cook told us there were no systems in place for recording and promoting good standards in the kitchen. Staff told us there were no due diligence forms such as an in-depth cleaning schedule, record of temperatures, record of fridge checks, food safety and hygiene policy. Staff told us the night staff clean the kitchen but there was little evidence to suggest the cleaning was enough to keep people safe and protected from the risk of infection.”
One resident said staff were “quite disengaged and disinterested” and the report said that they “did not appear to have experience or knowledge of supporting people with dementia”. One relative told inspectors how their family member had been able to leave the home without staff knowing. They were reported missing to the police, and this placed them at risk of harm.
The report said people had experienced falls where safeguarding procedures had not been followed. Incidents had not been reported or investigated and risk assessments had not been reviewed to ensure people’s safety and the management and oversight of accidents and incidents was poor.
“The manager did not demonstrate a good understanding of safeguarding. For example, they did not know how to make a safeguarding referral to the local authority or know how to identify what needs to be reported,” said inspectors.
The home’s operator had not always recruited new staff in line with legislation to ensure they were suitable for their job roles, said the report. “Some information was missing from the staff recruitment files we saw, such as gaps in a person’s employment history and lack of information related to people’s sponsorship agreement.”
Residents told inspectors that they felt safe living there, enoyed the food and choice of meals and were visited by health professionals when required. However, inspectors reported that “they were not supported to be as independent as possible or be involved in agreeing to their care and support arrangements. People’s consent was not always sought, and they were not always listened to”.
“We have identified breaches of the regulations relating to person centred care, consent, safe care and treatment, the environment, and governance,” said the report. “We also found the provider had not made statutory notifications to CQC as required by law.”
On its website, Primos Care says it provides “care services at affordable rates” and that since it took over in 2018 it has “significant improvements to the staffing as well as the infrastructure”. “Our residential care home services offer a blend of personal attention, professional healthcare, and a nurturing environment that feels just like home.”
Primos Care has been contacted for comment. The full Care Quality Commision report can be found here.
