Care Quality Commission takes enforcement action against care home

New residents to an Ely care home have been stopped until problems identified by Government inspectors have been resolved.

Action has been taken after the Care Quality Commission found some standards were not up to scratch.

On a visit to Vera James House, in Chapel Street, inspectors found that health professionals’ advice to staff was not always being followed and that there were gaps in the home’s ability to identify and manage risks for the 41 residents.

Now the home’s owner, Cambridge Housing Society, has stepped in.

Chief executive Nigel Howlett said: “I sincerely apologise to all residents and their families for the shortcomings. I expect our services to be as good as those we would wish our own families and friends to receive, so these results are particularly disappointing.

“We have taken immediate action and have employed additional specialist staff to work alongside our existing staff to give them the tools and training needed to provide the high quality of care we demand.

“We have temporarily closed the home to new residents until we and the authorities are satisfied that we can maintain the right standards in the longer term.

“The CQC returned last week to re-inspect, and have confirmed that we are now compliant with the care and wellbeing standard and the warning notice for this standard will now be removed.

“The CQC will return in December to re-inspect the quality assurance standard. The families of residents have been kept fully informed of the progress made and are all very supportive of the staff team.”

Inspectors had found that on occasion one resident “had to wait up to 40 minutes to be assisted with personal care”.

They also found gaps in identifying and managing risks and no information had been provided to ensure one resident should only have soft food for fear for choking.

The CQC also noted the high number of agency staff in place.