Hove Nursing Home Rated 'Inadequate' By CQC

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Asher Nursing Home in Hove, East Sussex, inadequate, and placed it in special measures following an inspection in October.

Asher Nursing Home is a nursing home which provides personal care to those with long standing, complex mental health needs. The service can support up to 17 people.

The inspection was prompted due to concerns received about lack of reporting or the investigating of potential safeguarding concerns, staffing levels, nutrition and hydration, and lack of activities.

Following this inspection, the service’s overall rating has dropped from requires improvement to inadequate, as have the ratings for being safe and well-led. How effective, caring, and responsive the service is has dropped from good to requires improvement. 

The service is now in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made. 

Neil Cox, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said:  

“When we inspected Asher Nursing Home, we were disappointed to find there was a poor culture and no consistency regarding the care provided. Leaders need to  prioritise making urgent improvements, particularly regarding people’s safety and how their needs are being met.

“It was very concerning to find that some people who were known to smoke in their rooms were prescribed emollient creams. The risk associated with this hadnt been assessed. Emollient creams are known to be flammable therefore this placed people at risk of harm.

“People were known to be drinking alcohol at the premises. On one occasion, there had been an incident of alcohol being shared between people which would put their health at significant risk. There was no effective policy in place to support staff on how to manage this safely and reduce the impact on others living at the home.

“It was also concerning to hear people's care needs had not been fully assessed or care plans completed. For example, we found one person had moved in a number of months ago and didn’t have a personalised care plan for living at the service. This placed this person, others living at the home and staff at potential risk.

“There had also been allegations of abuse raised by staff. Both the provider and registered manager hadn’t always ensured a referral was completed to the local authority and CQC as required and couldn’t provide evidence that the appropriate actions been taken to investigate and learn from these.

“We’ve reported our findings to the provider, and they know what they must address. We will monitor the service to ensure people are receiving safe care. If sufficient progress hasn’t been made, we will not hesitate to take action to ensure people’s safety and wellbeing.” 

Inspectors found:

• The fire risk assessment in place contained inaccurate information. It stated that there was no risk of smoking within the premises. However, there was evidence of this occurring in people's rooms, used cigarette ends and ash were seen, there was a lingering smell of smoke and staff confirmed it was a regular occurrence. This was raised to the operations manager and addressed.
• People were not being supported to engage in activities which were meaningful to them.
• People's beds did not always have sheets on them, meaning mattresses were getting soiled.
• Medicines were not consistently managed safely. One person was routinely missing their medicine due to being intoxicated. However, there was no evidence of medical advice being sought when this occurred.

The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.