Dove Court Care Home in Burnley has been downgraded

Dove Court Care Home in Shuttleworth Street, Burnley, was inspected at the end of August with a report published by the Care Quality Commission last week.

When inspectors visited the home, which had last been rated ‘good’, they found two of the five assessable areas fell into the ‘requires improvement’ category and therefore had to downgrade the overall rating for the home to ‘requires improvement’.

While the key assessable areas of effective, caring and responsive were previously rated ‘good’ and had not changed at this inspection, the area of ‘safe’, which required improvement at the last visit, remained the same, and the area of well-led dropped from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

Inspectors found that medicines were not always safely managed or administered at the correct times because the manufacturer's instructions were not followed.

The report stated: “For example, medicines were not always given before food when they should have been. Therefore, the efficacy of the medicine might be affected.

“We found two people did not have one of their medicines given to them as prescribed. This placed them at risk of harm or experiencing a deterioration in their condition.

“When people had their medicines given covertly (hidden in food or drink), the correct information to support staff to give medicines safely was not always in place.

“Information to support staff to safely administer medicines via a feeding tube was not always available in people's medicines administration records or care plans. This meant medicines might not be administered safely to people.

“When people were prescribed 'when required' medicines the information to support staff to give the medicine was not always up to date.

“We found information to support staff to know where to apply topical preparations such as creams, was not always in place. Therefore, we were not assured people's skin was cared for properly.”

Inspectors also found that recruitment systems required some improvement as some care workers had gaps in employment that had not been addressed and a full employment history had not always been sought.

There were also concerns over leadership with staff not always being clear about the auditing systems in place, particularly the auditing system for medicines, which was not always effective in monitoring the safety of medicines and did not pick up the concerns found during the inspection.

However, throughout the inspection, the CQC observed staff and senior management were very pleasant and accommodating.

The report went on: “There was a warm, relaxed atmosphere throughout the home. A staff member said, ‘I like it here, management are good. If anything goes wrong, they will support you. There is really good teamwork and we all care for each other’.

“People told us Dove Court Care Home is a nice place to live and people felt happy there. A person told us, ‘the way they treat you, they ask if you are alright, they are friendly, and it makes you feel good’.

“Staff told us morale was good and there was a positive culture in the home. They said, ‘people are looked after well. Always thought the care was really good’.”

A spokesperson for Dove Court said: "We take all feedback from the Care Quality Commission seriously, and always prioritise the wellbeing of those in our care. While we are rated 'good' in the majority of areas of the CQC's latest report, we therefore acknowledge that there remains work to do to address the specific areas of improvement identified at their last visit.

"We have already made a number of improvements to our processes since the CQC’s most recent visit in August, including to our medicines management systems and consistency of our care records. We are committed to further embedding these improvements in line with our thorough action plan, and in conjunction with the CQC and our local authority partners.

"The views of our residents and their loved ones matters greatly to us, and so we were pleased to read the comments they made to the CQC inspectors during their visit including 'they will always go the extra mile for you. They listen to you, if you want anything they will go and get it for you, you only have to ask' and 'the food is great, you can't fault it.'"