A West Cumbrian care home has been told it needs to improve by its industry watchdog – and bosses say work to do so is almost completed.
Stanbeck Residential Care Home in Workington has been inspected by the Care Quality Commission in July.
Inspectors said their visit was prompted by an unexplained death at the Stainburn Road home, which has since been ruled as natural causes.
Their report was published on Friday.
Inspectors said that overall, the care home required improvement.
They said: “People were at risk of harm as fire safety had not been managed effectively. We made a referral to the fire service following our inspection.”
Inspectors said fire doors were wedged open, an evacuation plan was not clear enough and recommendations made in 2014 had not been acted on.
However, a spokesman for the care home said that before the inspectors arrived, work had already started – and was well underway – to improve fire safety.
Inspectors did say in their report: “Following our feedback and feedback from the fire and rescue service, the registered manager had made changes to fire evacuation arrangements and briefed staff on these.”
The report said that the provider did not have effective oversight to make sure people were receiving effective care.
It added that systems were not fully embedded to support the safe and proper use of medicines for people, and visiting arrangements for family and friends did not reflect the guidance at the time for them to test for COVID-19 before going to the home.
Inspectors also said that they found CCTV was used to monitor people’s safety and the premises, but there was no evidence that residents and their families had been told CCTV was used.
Stanbeck Residential Care Home can provide care for up to 13 people and at the time of the inspection, 10 people were living there. Inspectors found that people’s experiences were positive and complimented the staff on their approach and they said the manager was fully involved.
Inspectors praised the manager for being responsive to their feedback and making changes.
The spokesman added: “Work had already started and was well underway when the inspectors arrived. We had been struggling to find the equipment we needed and the fire service confirmed there had been a shortage, but that has been remedied. They also advised us to implement extra documentation for medicines, which we have done and are in the process of turning our paperwork electronic.”
“We are only a small home and we are proud of it – we’ve managed to keep COVID-19 away from our residents throughout the pandemic.”
