"Shocking catalogue of failures in Coventry care homes"

[dutchman]

Care homes for hundreds of elderly, sick and disabled people in Coventry and Warwickshire run by crisis-hit firm Southern Cross have failed to meet legal standards of care.



A shocking catalogue of legal failures putting frail patients at risk includes below-minimum numbers of staff and staff training, poor hygiene, failures in responding to abuse allegations, and inadequate care plans for patients, including in administering medicines.

Two homes illegally failed to register a manager, and one had not ensured residents’ safety by completing a criminal records check.

Coventry City Council social services bosses – who place some of the homes’ most vulnerable residents – said last week they had “no concerns” about the quality of care in the city’s seven Southern Cross homes.

But a Telegraph investigation can reveal five of those homes failed to meet statutory requirements in their latest key inspections carried out by the national regulator, the Quality Care Commission.

All five were given lowly one-star “adequate” ratings, placing them among the bottom 13 per cent of privately-run care homes in England.

One more care home in Warwickshire – Arden Valley Christian nursing home in Wootton Wawen – also received a one-star rating and failed legal standards, including on staffing and training, medicines, and minimising risks from often destabilised patients’ behaviour.

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