Shropshire care home in special measures after inspection

Doddington Lodge, a 41-bed care home in Doddington, near Cleobury Mortimer, has been rated as inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC ) following an inspection at the end of March, a new report has revealed.

The inspection in March was a follow-up to previous visits last September where breaches of legal requirements were first found, leading to a report in December.

At that time the home was rated as the less severe "requires improvement", but the failure to put an improvement plan into action has seen the home put into special measures, with four of the five key areas – safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership – now rated as inadequate.

Read the full CQC report on Doddington Lodge

The home, run by Chelcare Ltd, was found to be still in breach of three Health and Social Care Act regulations, relating to person-centred care, safe care and support and governance of the service. No-one at Doddington Lodge was available to comment.

The inspector said: "At the time of our inspection there were 34 people living at the home. Doddington Lodge had two separate living areas, the A side for people living with dementia and the B side for people who have complex health needs.

"There was no effective leadership in the service. There were no clear actions planned or taken to improve the care and treatment that people received.

"We had concerns in relation to how the service was managed.

"People were not always kept safe from harm. There were not enough staff on duty to keep people safe or to respond to people's health needs at the times when they needed support. People were not always treated with dignity and respect. People did not receive the appropriate support to maintain healthy nutrition and people's specific dietary needs were not always catered for."

In addition the home had not clearly displayed its quality rating from the December report, the inspector said.

"Information supplied by the provider to the public did not reflect the last CQC inspection rating. This is a requirement to ensure that the provider is transparent about the quality of the service they provide," he said.

The inspector did find some positives, such as staff being not allowed to work with people until checks had been made on their suitability, and residents given support to make choices and decisions about their own care, if able.

Medicines were also ordered, stored, administered and disposed of safely, the report found.

The home will now stay under review and be re-inspected in six months. If no improvements are made it could lead to the cancelling the home's registration.