Castlehill Care Home in Inverness hit with scathing Care Inspectorate report
A stricken Inverness care home has been hit with a scathing inspection report after failing to sustain previous improvements.
An unannounced Care Inspectorate inspection of Castlehill Care Home was carried out in early October to check if it had met previous targets set out in an improvement notice.
However, of the three areas graded, two were given the lowest possible score of “unsatisfactory” while the other was graded as “weak”.
The facility, operated by Simply Inverness Ltd, has been the subject of numerous public complaints with issues at the home culminating in a damning BBC documentary.
The inspection report, published today (November 4), shows that the issues persist.
For supporting people’s wellbeing, inspectors graded this area as “unsatisfactory”.
They found “major weaknesses” in critical aspects of performance which, according to the watchdog, will require “immediate remedial action”.
The report notes that staff did not know when people needed assistance and did not “consistently or adequately” support residents to eat or drink. Inspectors added that some people were “left to eat in an undignified way”.
For this area, inspectors also found that people were not being supported with adequate pain management through medication. They found that regular assessments of people’s pain were not being completed which increased the risk of them being left in pain or discomfort.
The facility’s leadership was graded as “unsatisfactory” with management deemed to not providing appropriate oversight placing residents’ health and wellbeing at risk.
Communication between management and staff was labelled “ineffective” with essential care being missed or inconsistent.
The report adds: “Managers were present in the service but were not actively noticing concerns, such as issues with the administration of medication and effective pain relief, this placed people's health and comfort at risk.
“Where practice concerns were identified and raised by inspectors these were often met with defensiveness, rather than a strategy to move forward.”
The facility’s staff team also came in for criticism with inspectors grading this area as “weak”.
The inspection found that while there was an “adequate number of staff” on shift they were not working together “effectively”.
The report states: “There was a lack of organisation on the first floor and it was not clear which staff were responsible for tending to certain aspects of care, such as checking people's continence aids, this meant at times people were left in wet or soiled continence aids because support had not been provided.”
Inspectors added that staff did not show initiative and, while some showed “dedication and commitment”, morale was low and they felt “under pressure”.