Care home in Leighton Buzzard still in special measures as watchdog says it is taking action to protect residents

A care home in Leighton Buzzard is still in special measures – as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) says it is taking action to protect residents.

The 30 residents at Swiss Cottage Care Home will be monitored to ensure their safety after the CQC again rated the home ‘inadequate’.

The watchdog visited to follow up on concerns found in previous inspections, including around people’s safety, person-centred care, and poor leadership – and says it was “deeply disappointed”.

The Plantation Road care home, run by Roseberry Care Centres GB Limited has again been rated inadequate for safe and well-led. Its rating has dropped from requires improvement to inadequate for effective, caring and responsive.

CQC spokeswoman Gill Hodgson-Reilly explained: “When we inspected Swiss Cottage Care Home, we were deeply disappointed to find leaders hadn’t acted on safety issues we’d raised to them repeatedly in previous inspections, and were still failing to provide good, personalised care.

“We found many people’s care plans were incorrect or contradictory about the most basic information, such as people’s gender, and didn’t contain accurate guidance for staff about people’s individual risks or how to reduce these.

“We saw multiple people in the home weren’t eating enough, but staff weren’t making sure they received additional nutrition or that their food was appealing. We also saw some people couldn’t reach their call bells to call for help, but the service hadn’t taken action to reduce this risk to their safety.”

She explained while an incident of abuse had resulted in discipline, a safeguarding referral to the local authority was not made. On the follow-up visit, inspectors actioned the referral themselves after finding it still had not been submitted.

Other issues included: personal hygiene neglect due to a lack of hot water, personal care information displayed on walls, human rights restrictions due to limited choices in care, no activities for those confined to bed-care and people occasionally left alone without mobility equipment.

Inspectors also received mixed feedback on how safe residents felt in the home and how caring staff were.

Ms Hodgson-Reilly added: “We’ve told the provider exactly where improvements need to be made and will be monitoring the service closely to make sure people are being cared for safely during this time. We’re also taking further regulatory action which we’ll report on when we’re legally able to do so.”

However, there were some positive comments made by the inspectors. They included an approachable and informative manager, plentiful staff and residents’ enjoyment of part of the home designed to look like a sweet shop.

A spokesperson for Roseberry Care said: “The health and wellbeing of everyone who makes their home is us is our absolute priority and we were saddened to read the report by the Care Quality Commission, which we do not feel accurately reflects the quality of care provided at Swiss Cottage care home.

“We would like to apologise to our home community and thank them for the positive feedback they shared with the CQC.

“As a responsible provider of care, we regularly undertake reviews of the changes and investment needed in our homes to ensure their bright futures. In June, we informed our home community that we had made the difficult decision to transfer ownership of Swiss Cottage to Pressbeau Care Provider. Pressbeau is a group of family-run care homes that have been established since 1984. We expect the transfer of the home to happen imminently, and we are doing everything we can to ensure a smooth transition.”