'Medication hidden in patient's food' at failing care home in closure threat

Princess Lodge in High Street was rated inadequate overall in a damning report that also revealed residents were improperly handled when being moved.

Medication was hidden in the food and drink of one patient who was not able to make informed decisions, and the Care Quality Commission found the unit had received no consent to administer medicine in this way.

Detailed instructions were not available in relation to providing medicines in food or drink to enable nursing staff to know how to give people these medicines.

Two members of staff were witnessed transferring a patient using an 'inappropriate' technique, which the CQC said amounted to 'abuse or harm'.

Accident records also showed that staff had failed to ensure alarm sensor mats were working in rooms on two occasions when patients fell out of bed, meaning staff were not alerted to the problem straight away.

The care watchdog also found a patient had suffered several falls over a period of a few weeks but that no action had been taken to try and prevent it from happening again.

It was also discovered that medicines were not always being administered correctly. Two people who had been prescribed a medicine that needed to be given once a week had not been provided with it.

Following the findings, the care home, which had 26 residents at the time of the inspection, has been placed in special measures and warned it must make rapid progress over the next 12 months or face being shut down.

The CQC rated it inadequate for being safe and well led and said it required improvement in areas of being effective, caring and responsive.

The CQC report said: "If not enough improvement is made within this time frame so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service."

Care home director Michael Goss admitted there had been difficulties at the care home but was confident a new manager would turn the site around.

He said: "The recent inspection report is disappointing, however the majority of the problems were associated with leadership and management. We have recruited a new manager who will be starting in due course.

"We have had meetings with both Sandwell Contracts and the CQC having submitted action plans which we are working towards bringing the home back into a compliant position."