"OAPs at care home went without medications for a week"

[dutchman]

Six residents at a care home in Coventry were left without any of their medication for a week, a report reveals.



The discovery was made on an unannounced visit to investigate standards at Coundon Manor Care home in Radford.

Inspectors for the Care Quality Commission found medication management issues put residents ‘at risk’ when they swooped on the premises in Foster Road last month after being tipped off with concerns about care.

A report published after the visit says inspectors were particularly worried to find six residents had not received any of their medicines for seven days.

It adds that, because drugs had not been ordered or delivered on time, 11 people did not have one or more of their prescribed medicines.

There were also gaps on five residents’ medicine charts so it was unclear whether they had been given their prescribed medicine or not. Staff blamed a new electronic prescribing system for not being able to see prescriptions to check them.

The medication problem was just one area for concern at the home, which caters for up to 74 residents including those with dementia.

Fears over staffing levels and lack of equipment are also highlighted in the home’s latest CQC report.

It outlines how one resident lost 2st 3lb in three months and that they were given the same food as other residents despite instructions for extra calories to be added to their meals.

And at mealtime “one person was fed their meal one spoonful after another before they had the opportunity to finish what was in their mouth”.

“This was not dignified,” says the report, “and was too fast a pace for the person to eat properly. We reported this to the manager.”

The report says one staff member told how residents may go without a bath or shower because they did not have enough time.

And on another testimony says: “One staff member told us: ‘This is desperate and this is how it is’. They also told us: ‘It’s more like an institution. I am losing my passion’.”

It also explains how a number of residents had developed pressure sores which resulted in safeguarding referrals.

Inspectors also found some residents did not have access to their call bell and one told them “it could be an hour” before staff came when they rang their bell.

The CQC called for an action plan to be produced to improve five key areas – care and welfare of people who use services; management of medicines; safety, availability and sustainability of equipment; staffing; and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision.

Malcolm Bower-Brown, CQC deputy chief inspector of adult social care, said: “We carried out an inspection at Coundon Manor Care Home, on Foster Road, Coventry, on 16 June, in response to concerns that had been shared with us about standards of care at the service.

“Our inspectors found a number of serious issues and we informed the provider of these. We also shared our concerns with the local authority and other agencies.”

He added: “In the meantime, we continue to monitor the service carefully and will not hesitate to any further action necessary to ensure everyone living at the home receives the quality of care they are entitled to expect.

“If anyone has any concerns about this or any other care service please contact us immediately.”

[dutchman]

Care home nurse struck off after being found guilty of assault



A CARE home nurse who was found guilty of assaulting a vulnerable dementia patient has been struck off.

Registered nurse Hugh McCooey tipped an elderly resident out of a chair at Coundon Manor Care Home after the patient wet himself but refused to change his trousers.

Other staff at the home in Foster Road called Mr McCooey, who was above them in seniority, to help with the patient.

But the nurse – who had worked in the profession for nearly 30 years – tipped him forward, causing him to fall out of the chair onto his hands and knees.

Following the incident in July 2015, Mr McCooey was found guilty of assault at Coventry Magistrates Court in October that year, and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.

The Nursing and Midwife Council (NMC) decided to suspend him for a year. But following a review of the order, it has now struck him off the nursing register.

A spokesman for the panel said: “The patient was a vulnerable resident with dementia. Mr McCooey’s actions could have caused him emotional and physical harm.

“By tipping the chair in order to get him out, Mr McCooey has brought the nursing profession into disrepute and had failed to treat the resident with the dignity and respect he deserved.

“Although this was a single incident in a long career as a nurse, Mr McCooey’s actions were serious enough to warrant a criminal conviction. He breached a fundamental tenet of the nursing profession by failing to act lawfully.”

In a meeting after the incident the nurse told the home he accepted the tipping of the chair was not appropriate and regretted his actions.

He also said he should have given the patient more time before coming back to him.

The NMC panel says as a learning disability nurse he would have known how to deal with a vulnerable resident with dementia.

Other carers had called for him requiring his expertise to deal with the patient and ‘expected him to understand, be tolerant of and skilled’ in managing challenging behaviour.

Coming to their decision, the panel said: “Patients and their families must be able to trust nurses with their lives and the lives of their loved ones.”