Residents allowed one shower per week at Black Country care home

Prestwood Coach House, near Stourbridge, has been ranked as ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The home’s safety, leadership and responsiveness were given the bottom rating, while its effectiveness and care was rated as ‘requires improvement’ by inspectors, who visited on April 17.

A spokesman for the home said they were disappointed at the findings of the inspection, while they apologised that some aspects of care ‘appeared to fall below the standards’.

The report said: “At the last inspection people raised concerns that they could only receive a shower once a week.

“At this inspection, no improvements had been made. One person told us, ‘I have a shower once a week, I have requested to have one daily, or at least twice a week would be better.

"I have been told they could not do this for me as everyone will want it and they don’t have the staff.’

“All the residents we spoke with and documentation confirmed that people only had a shower or bath once a week.

“A staff member said, ‘It is awful we are the ones that have to tell the people no. We would love to be able to do it but we just don’t have the time. People can’t have the care they want, it’s embarrassing.’

“We spoke with the home manager and registered manager who did not understand the importance of providing care that was personalised to people’s individual needs and preferences.

“The home manager said, ‘It’s a care home people have to accept what happened at home won’t happen here’. They continued, ‘We can’t honestly offer someone a bath every day due to time. If we had infinite staff numbers then I guess we would’.

“We could not be assured that equipment within the home was clean, suitable for the purpose or properly maintained. People and relatives raised concerns about equipment.

“People were not always supported in a dignified way. We saw when people were hoisted staff were not always mindful of people’s dignity.

"On one occasion we saw a person's clothing was not adjusted so their dignity could be maintained."

The inspectors added that care plans did not always reflect the people's individual needs – with the information in risk assessments the same and photocopied for each person.

A spokesperson for the home said: “The well-being of people entrusted to our care is our first priority and we are disappointed and extremely sorry that some aspects of care at The Coach House appeared to fall below the standards we expect our care homes to provide.

“We take any findings and reports by our CQC inspectors seriously and since the April inspection a comprehensive action plan has been implemented to make the necessary improvements.

"Our senior management team will continue to work with CQC and partner organisations to ensure we deliver the high standard of care our residents and their relatives have a right to expect.

"Planned refurbishment of the home began 12 months ago and already the kitchen has been extended and completely refurbished, modern and efficient lighting has been installed throughout, the fire alarm system has been upgraded and bathrooms are being updated to stylish wetrooms.

"There was no reason for items of furniture not to be up to standard and immediate arrangements were made to have them replaced as we want the home to reflect the quality of care we want to offer our clients.

"We believe we have the right systems and processes in place to support a high standard of care and have invested further in staff training and a new management structure to ensure a good understanding of those processes and to improve communications going forward."