Thames House Care Home requires improvement, says the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) caried out an unannounced inspection at Thames House in Rochdale on 3 September 2015.

Thames House provides accommodation and nursing care to people with Huntington’s disease, acquired by brain injury and other physical disabilities. The service is registered to provide nursing care for up to 20 people. At the time of the inspection, 11 people were living in the service.

At the time of the inspection the service did not have a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC to manage the service. Prior to the inspection, the CQC state that they had received notification from the provider to inform them the registered manager had left their employment on the 27 May 2015. The CQC was told that a temporary manager was in place until such time as a replacement manager was employed. The temporary manager was on annual leave on the day of the inspection.

Staffing levels within the home were described as “low”. Inspectors state that records shows that staffing levels were insufficient and inspectors observed staff struggling to take time to have their lunch and to give medicines out on time. Medicines at the home were not always managed safely. The CQC states that medicines should be dated when opened, such as liquid medicine, and they were not always dated. The recording of medicines was not always correct.

The report also states that staff had not received training in some areas and have not received mandatory refresher training and supervisions were not held as described in the policy procedure book.

The CQC described the service as “not always being well-led”.

Thames House Care Home was contacted for comment but had not respond at the time of publication.