Doncaster: St Mary's Nursing Home placed into special measures by Government watchdog

St Mary’s Nursing Home on Thorne Road, Town Moor, has been rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who found seven breaches of the Health & Social Care Act 2008.

Inspectors rated the home’s safety and management inadequate while its care, responsiveness and effectiveness were told it requires improvement.

Doncaster Council has been made aware of the findings and are said to be working with the home ‘to ensure residents remain safe’.

Registered manager Sheila Horrocks declined to comment on the report’s findings.

Inspectors said they found dirty conditions in some parts of the home and ruled that ‘people were not always protected by the risk and spread of infection’.

Officials noted the sluice rooms were in need of a deep clean and items such as bed pans and urinals were ‘worn and stained and required replacing’.

The home’s management conceded they needed to replace the floor coverings in bedrooms as they were ‘damaged and split and not able to be kept clean’.

Inspectors also found a risk of cross infection from the medicine pots and they said that staff were washing single use pots in the wash hand basin in the medicine room which was ‘ingrained with black dirt’.

A report compiled by inspectors found four safeguarding incidents were reported to Doncaster Council but only two had been sent to the CQC.

Following the inspection, the CQC raised four safeguarding concerns with with Civic Office bosses. The provider ‘failed to recognise these concerns’.

One residents told inspectors they ‘sit in their room all day because the buzzer doesn’t work’ and another said ‘there’s nothing to do so my family bring me books to read’.

Inspectors found fire doors had been ‘wedged open with items of furniture, such as coffee tables and chairs’ which later prompted a visit from South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue.

CQC officials relayed comments from employees who said they told management they needed more staff to work in the home and shifts took place short staffed.

One employee said the care coordinator was often pulled into care duties which left residents short of activities.

Phil Holmes, director of adults, health and wellbeing at Doncaster Council said: “The Care Quality Commission has made the Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group aware of their concerns.

“We have been working with the care home provider and with a range of professionals to ensure that residents remain safe. We are also working together to ensure that the care home provider makes the necessary improvements as quickly as possible.”

A CQC spokesman said: “We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, person centred care, staffing, safeguarding and leadership and oversight at this inspection.

“The overall rating for this service is 'Inadequate' and the service is therefore 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.

“If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe, this will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service.

“This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.”

The full report can be read here.