More safety concerns over Bankfield Residential Care Home in Bury

Bankfield Residential Care Home on Gigg Lane provides accommodation and personal care for up to 47 older people and people living with dementia.

Back in August, an inspection ranked the care home "inadequate" - the worst possible score - and remained in "special measures", a position it has been in since January 29 this year following a previous damning inspection.

READ > Bury care home remains in special measure amid safety concerns

Regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), received worries in relation to staffing and risks to people and carried out a focused inspection in October to review the safety of the care home.

There were 20 residents living at the premises at the time of the visit.

The CQC found breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing and fit and proper persons employed at the inspection.

Its safety was rated "inadequate" and residents were found to be in an unsafe environment and were at risk of avoidable harm, the report found.

The report stated: “Staff were not always administering medicines safely and some medicines were being administered too closely together and audits had not identified this.”

In one case, one person received too much pain relief medicine on more that 16 occasions within a month.

The provider also did not ensure medicines were being managed safely.

This was a continued breach of regulation 12 (1) (safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) 2014.

The report said: “Recruitment checks of new staff members were not always safe.

“Agency staff were regularly used and did not receive an induction to the home.

“At this inspection, not enough improvement had been made.”

Agency workers were regularly covering up to 100 hours per week of care shifts and there was no record of induction to the home.

The report said: “A staff member told us they were responsible for telling agency staff what to do, but there was no time, specifically when agency staff don't know how to work the electronic care planning system.

“One person told us they regularly have to get up early due to staffing levels.

“A staff member told us, those staff who work at night struggle as they can be in a bedroom with a person who requires the support of two staff members which means there is no one having oversight of communal areas.”

Risks to people were not always clearly documented and at the last inspection, risks to people were not robustly captured as part of care planning and risk assessing processes, the report said.

The provider did not have thorough oversight of accidents and incidents either, which was a breach of regulation 12.

Faults in preventing infections were discovered too.

The report added: “At the last inspection, the provider did not ensure communal areas were clean.

“The provider did not have arrangements in place to monitor a person's Covid-19 status when transitioning between services. This was a breach of regulation 12.

“Although some improvements have been made to the management of infection control, further improvements are required, and the provider remains in breach of regulation 12.”

These breaches included staff not always following the correct guidance for the wearing of face masks in the care home.

On the arrival of an inspector, a senior staff member opened the door and was not wearing a face mask while they spoke with them and other professionals.

Another senior care worker was wearing a mask under their chin while administering medicines to people.

Some positives were found during the inspection though.

The report said: “People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests, the policies and systems in the service did support this practice.”

The CQC report said: “The overall rating for this service is 'inadequate' and the service therefore remains in 'special measures'.

“This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider's registration, we will re-inspect within six months to check for significant improvements.”

Attempts were made to contact the care home for a comment about the latest inspection. 

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