An East Lancashire care home has been rated as requires improvement for the sixth consecutive time.

Heightside House Nursing Home in Rawtenstall was inspected by officers from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in June, and in a report published at the end of July, the service was given an overall rating of requires improvement, as well as being rated requires improvement for safety and good leadership.

The report stated: "The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published February 17 2020).

"At that inspection we found two breaches of regulation relating to the management of people's medicines and a lack of effective systems to monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service.

"The provider completed an action plan after that inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve."

During the current inspection officers found that not enough improvement had been made and the provider was still in breach of those regulations.

The report added: "The service remains rated requires improvement.

"This service has been rated requires improvement for the last six consecutive inspections."

The inspection in June was what the CQC call a 'focused' inspection, by which officers checked that the provider had followed the action plan put in place at the last inspection, and therefore only covered the areas of safety and good leadership.

CQC officers found Heightside House Nursing Home, on Newchurch Road, had made limited improvements to the management of people's medicines, and while fewer people had missed doses of their prescribed medicines because there was no stock available, they found this was still the case for two people.

The inspection also found that information about how to manage people's diabetes was not always available to ensure it was treated safely, and medicines records failed to show that all medicines were given as prescribed.

In terms of leadership, the systems for monitoring and ensuring the quality and safety of the service at Heightside House needed improvement.

The report stated: "Following the last inspection, the provider had submitted an action plan to CQC, detailing the improvements they would make to the management of medicines at the home.

"At this inspection we found that regular audits of medicines had been completed, however, the necessary improvements had either not

been made or maintained.

"Some of the shortfalls we identified during our inspection had been found during the home's audits and we found evidence that many had been addressed with staff.

"However, unsafe medicines practices and medicines errors continued at the home."

Despite this, residents did tell inspectors they felt safe living at the home and there were enough staff available to meet their needs.

The home also had an improvement plan, which included the ongoing issues with medicines management, and staff training, supervision and disciplinary action had all been carried out.

In addition, from June 2021, meetings were to be held three times a week to review medicines records and ensure actions from audits were completed.

A warning notice was issued to Heightside House Nursing Home in respect of the two breaches which required them to be compliant by August 5 this year.

A spokesperson for the CQC said: "At this inspection, we have identified breaches in relation to the unsafe management of people's medicines and the lack of effective systems in place to ensure the quality and safety of the service.

"We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme.

"If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner."

Heightside House Nursing Home have been contacted for a statement.

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