Luxury Preston nursing home at risk of closure after damning inspection reveals it is "not safe"

Finney House, on the junction of Sir Tom Finney Way and Blackpool Road at Deepdale, opened in 2016 with single rooms starting at a basic £900 a week.

In its five years it has had a chequered history, and has now been rated as inadequate by inspectors from the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC). They recently carried out an unannounced inspection of the home after being notified that a resident had sustained a serious injury, which was subject to a criminal investigation.

The last inspection of Finney House was in March, and placed it as 'requires improvement'. The service has now deteriorated and will be re-inspected within six months to check for "significant improvements."

>>>Click here to read about the last inspection, when bosses were told to make improvements.

The CQC has the power to cancel the registration of the service if it feels not enough improvement has been made within this timeframe.

Key findings

Key findings by the latest inspection team were that Finney House was:

- Not safe

- Not always effective

-Not well-led

-Not responsive

However, inspectors did fid that the service was caring.

Medicines

The report states that medicines were not always administered safely or as prescribed, adding: "We could not be sure that all people were protected from the risk of overdosing from medicines."

Inspectors saw:

- A double dose of medicines being given to a person which then led to a hospital admission.

- Staff did not always record when time specific medicines were administered, and where a record was made, saw that the required four-hour gap between paracetamol doses had not been observed.

Records reviewed by the CQC also showed four instances where people had not been given their medicines for up to five days because medicines were either not in stock, misplaced or not identified as not supplied when people were admitted into the home or when new medicines were delivered.

Inspectors also noted that the provider had failed to ensure that staff responsible for administering medicines were competent to do so

Falls

The report states that inspectors also found a significant number of repeated falls, and missed medications that had not been reported to the local safeguarding authority in line with local protocols.

"We don't have time to support people"

A review of the call ball waiting times showed people did not always receive care in a timely way.

The report states: "On occasions waiting times for a few people on one floor and in particular one person more than others was more than an hour. One person informed us this had resulted in them not having their toileting needs met in time."

Eight out of 15 staff told inspectors they were times when staff deployment in parts of the home did not ensure they could provide care in a timely manner to meet people's needs.

Comments included: "A lot of incidents have happened because we are not able to respond to people in time" and, "It is such a busy day and people are at risk of harm because we don't have time to support people."

Relatives' experiences

People's relatives gave mixed responses in relation to the caring nature of staff and whether staff treated people with dignity and respect.

While some gave positive feedback and were complimentary about the caring nature of the staff team, some raised concerns about staff attitude and felt some staff were not caring.

Inspeciors received a "significant number" of comments from relatives regarding poor personal hygiene.

The report states: "Eight of the 22 relatives stated they found family member with long and dirty nails with faeces. Comments included: "My [relative] is no longer cared for as well as we would like, sleepy dust in her eyes, unwashed hair, poo under her fingernails, inappropriate clothing for certain days."

Some relatives were also distresses that "it is impossible to get through on the telephone" and at "weekends you cannot speak to anyone as no one is on reception."

Cleanliness

Inspectors received mixed comments from visiting relatives on cleanliness at the service. Inspectors observed parts of the home to be unclean on their first visit.

Eating and drinking

Inspectors commented that "the provider needed to improve the practices for supporting people with their eating and drinking. This was because people's nutritional records did not always reflect the care and support they were receiving with their diet."

However, they went on to say: "We observed people receiving support with their eating and drinking and being offered choice and alternatives. The atmosphere was pleasant, and meals were appetising."

Staffing and management

Staff told inspectors that morale was low and they observed a high turnover of staff in the service.

Inspectors noted that: "People were not supported by adequate numbers of suitably qualified staff to reduce risks of harm" and that "there was a lack of robust systems for ensuring staff received essential training and that the training met the needs of people at the home to promote high quality and person-centred care."

The service provider

The service which can house 96 residents, is run by L&M Healthcare (Deepdale) Ltd, which has been approached for comment.

The CQC report states: "The registered provider took immediate action to address some of the concerns and improve people's experiences."