Great Wyrley care home to close after scathing report
A care home is set to close after bosses admitted it was performing ‘well below’ their standards.
Hornegarth House Care Home, on Walsall Road in Great Wyrley, was placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission earlier this month and warned it could face closure if improvements weren’t made within six months.
Residents have now been told that they will be moved out over the coming weeks with a consultation process with staff under way.
Bosses at Four Seasons Health Care, which runs the home, said the decision was ‘unavoidable’ after a scathing report released by the watchdog, which found the home was critically understaffed with residents left to wait for medical care suffering injuries, medicines being administered late and people not being given food and drink quickly enough.
A statement from the company reads: “After careful consideration Four Seasons Health Care plans to close Hornegarth House Care Home.
“The company is undertaking a consultation process with the staff about the proposed closure. The plan to cease operating the home has not been arrived at easily, but we think it is unavoidable based on a combination of factors.”
The company said the ‘wellbeing and comfort’ of the people in its care had been taken into consideration, adding: “Our first consideration is the wellbeing and comfort of the people in our care.
“We have been concerned that the home has been well below the standards that we expect all of our homes to provide.
"There have been difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff with the right level of skills and aptitude and this has added to the challenges to bring about improvements.”
The care group said even if these issues had been resolved, the home “A further factor is that even with those issues resolved, the home ‘would struggle to be financially viable in the medium term’.
The statement added: “We have consulted about this plan with the Social Services teams at Staffordshire Council and Walsall Council.
"We have put additional experienced management, nursing and care staff into the home to help the care team to ensure that people are well looked after during the transition period, while we work closely with social services to support residents and their families to find the most suitable alternative placements.”
The home’s safety, effectiveness, leadership and responsiveness were all rated inadequate by CQC – the worst possible rating – while the home’s care was rated as requires improvement.
A report prepared after inspectors visited the home at the end of in March said: “There were not enough staff to offer support to people in a timely manner.
“The lack of staff within the home meant people had to wait for personal care, meals and medicines.
“As the rota was left uncovered we could not be assured there were the recommended amount of staff available for people.”
