A Maida Vale care home has received a second damning Care Quality Commission (CQC) report stating medicines were administered “unsafely” and it had not made improvements required after a 2018 inspection.
Westminster's Labour opposition has slammed the Carlton Dene care home on Kilburn Park Road, north Maida Vale, while the council itself has written to Sanctuary Housing, which took over the home and a number of others in the borough when they were out-sourced in 2015, to "express concerns" over the home's management.
The CQC investigated whether the home was safe, well-led, responsive, caring and effective. In all five areas, Carlton Dene was assessed as "requires improvement".
The second inspection was triggered after, in August last year, the home was assessed as breaching the Health and Social Care Act in three ways: unsafe medicine management, risk assessments that lacked robustness, and poor care planning.
But the new report found "the provider had failed to ensure that people who used the service safely received their medicine". Risk assessments and general safety procedure had improved, though.
Additionally, "more work was needed to ensure that all care plans were satisfactorily written" and the management of Carlton Dene had not provided "a sustained period of stable management", the CQC found.
Separately, Labour councillors have criticised Sanctuary for "undermining the working conditions" of care home staff by not paying staff the London Living Wage.The group has called for homes under Sanctuary's control to be given back to the council.
Cllr Adam Hug (Lab, Westbourne) said "Westminster Council should urgently explore options to bring its care home services back in house, especially if Sanctuary won't treat residents and staff with the respect they deserve."
The care provider's director of operations Sheila O'Connor said she was confident improvements had been made since the inspection, adding: "Staff will continue to work tirelessly to achieve the highest possible standards."
She also welcomed the report's finding that relatives of residents had confidence in the home's staff.
When Sanctuary took over the running of its six homes in Westminster, all six were rated "requires improvement".
Four years later, three still have that rating.
A Westminster Council spokesperson said: "Our residents deserve the best possible standard of care and we want every residential facility in Westminster to have a high rating from the Care Quality Commission.
"We have written to Sanctuary to express our concerns and we are working with them to help them to make the right improvements."
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