North Yorks nursing home told to improve.

Ackworth House Nursing Home, Filey, North Yorks has been told by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that it must make improvements or face enforcement action.

Inspectors who made an unannounced inspection in August found that the home was failing to provide safe, effective, caring, responsive or well-led care.

All adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care under CQC’s new programme of inspections. Overall, Ackworth House Nursing Home was rated as ‘Inadequate’ and areas identified for improvement were:

• People’s needs had not been taken into account when deciding on appropriate staffing levels and staff rotas revealed times when numbers had been below that required by the provider.
• Some people living at the service had not been consulted or assessed as to whether they had the mental capacity to make decisions regarding their care. Others who did not have mental capacity were not leaving the premises but it was unclear whether or not they were being deprived of their liberty lawfully as this had not been assessed by the local authority
• The administration of medicines was poorly managed. Medicines that had been administered were not always recorded properly and it was not clear if they were always receiving their medicines as prescribed.
• People were not protected from possible infection as they were not in a clean, hygienic environment.
• The premises had not been suitably adapted to assist mobility for people living with dementia.The provider did not have an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service and leadership was inconsistent and weak.

• There were limited activities and a risk of social isolation for some people.

Deputy chief inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, Debbie Westhead, said: “We have told Ackworth House Limited that they must take swift action to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people living at the home.

“The provider is failing to meet the basic needs and individual choices of residents and it is unacceptable that the service has failed to make progress since our previous visit in January 2014.”

CQC is currently considering the need for further regulatory action against Ackworth House Limited.