Shropshire care home 'regularly failed to give residents medication'
A care home for people with learning disabilities regularly failed to give residents their prescribed medication and may have failed to protect their human rights, government inspectors have said.
Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission visited York House in Bayston Hill twice in September.
In a report, they say personal care was given to a resident while the door was open and that medicine management was unsafe.
Today, the CQC inspection report rated the home, which can look after 10 people at any one time, as requiring improvement in all five key areas.
Click here to see the CQC report in full
The Glebe Road home will now have to write to the CQC to tell it what action it will be taking to improve the service it provides.
The report said: "We found medicine management was unsafe and people did not always receive their prescribed treatment.
"One medication administration record (MAR) showed the person had been prescribed treatment for nasal allergy symptoms.
"There were four gaps on the MAR to indicate they did not receive their treatment.
"We spoke with a staff member who was responsible for the management of medicines and they were unable to confirm whether the person had received their medication."
The report went on to say there were not enough staff on duty to help residents do the things they enjoyed and that one member of staff said new recruits were not given adequate support to care for people.
It said: "We observed two staff assist a person with their personal care needs with the bedroom door open. We asked the staff to close the door to preserve the person's privacy.
"A member of staff told us that one person required support with their continence needs and should be supported to go to the toilet regularly.
"They told us that some staff found it easier to use continent aids. These practices did not promote the person's dignity.
"People's human rights may not be protected because staff did not always include the principles of the Mental Capacity Act in their care practices."
The report also said practices in the home did not promote inclusion and residents were not supported to maintain their independence. It did note that staff were now given one-to-one sessions to help them provide a better service, one resident described the staff as "cool".
A spokesman for Prospects, the registered provider for York House, said: "As stated in the CQC report, prior to the inspection, Prospects had informed CQC that standards within the home had fallen short of our expectation and measures were put in place to improve the quality of service provided to people.
"Prospects have assured CQC that they would continue to support people."
