A Bermondsey care home slammed after residents were found wearing stained clothes last year has been told to improve again by inspectors.
Tower Bridge Care Centre was rated ‘requires improvement’ overall by social care watchdog the CQC following a five-day inspection in March and April this year.
The home, which looks after 112 elderly people including those with dementia, was given the worst possible rating of ‘inadequate’ at a previous inspection in August 2022 and placed in special measures.
It is now out of special measures but Tower Bridge Care Centre has now been rated ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ in its last three inspections by the CQC.
During the most recent visit to the home, inspectors found it was managing people’s medicines in an unsafe way despite improvements.
A CQC report published on July 18 noted: “At our last inspection we found there were significant and widespread issues with the records of administration as records were not reliably accounting for the medicines people had been given.
“At this inspection we found although records were more reliable and usually tallied with the physical stock of medicines available, there was one example of a medicated cream that staff had signed for as administered, which in fact, had not been administered.”
The home was also found to have failed to fill in information about how people should be cared for in breach of government regulations.
The report continued: “We identified two examples where people’s nutritional care plans did not contain up to date information about their care needs.
“We also found people did not have dementia care plans in place, thereby creating a risk of their dementia care needs not being fully met.”
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Despite this, the CQC said problems linked to a lack of staff observed by inspectors during the previous inspection last August appeared to have been resolved.
In a report about the August 2022 visit, published in June this year, inspectors said “Shortages of staff impacted on people’s wellbeing. We observed people being told they would have to wait for staff to fulfil their requests due to the shortage.
“Staff appeared to be tired and rushed and people appeared unkempt. For example, we saw numerous people wearing stained clothing.”
But after their most recent visit, CQC inspectors said in the July 18 report: “At this inspection we found the provider ensured there were enough staff to support people safely and were no longer in breach of regulations.
“People, their relatives and staff told us there were enough staff on duty to provide support. One care worker told us “Every day is usually fine, scheduling is fine, but the only problem is if somebody calls in sick. They try to sort this out quickly though.”
In March 2021, a woman with dementia became stuck in a locked cupboard while staying at Tower Bridge Care Centre. Last year her daughter was awarded £1,300 in compensation by the Local Government Ombudsman from Southwark Council, which was responsible for her care while in the privately run home.
A spokesperson for Tower Bridge Care Centre, which is run by HC-One, said: “Our priority remains the wellbeing of our residents, and we are all committed to doing everything we can to always provide the best possible standards of care for them and their loved ones.
“We are therefore pleased with the outcome of the CQC’s recent inspection which acknowledges the improvements we have made since their visit last year.
“We have made significant changes to our record keeping and risk assessment processes, and have provided enhanced refresher training for our teams.
“We are pleased to see the positive feedback of our residents and colleagues throughout the CQC’s latest report which reflects the kindness and dedication of our care teams.
“We know there are still improvements to be made, but the CQC’s latest feedback demonstrates that we are moving in the right direction. Our focus now is on working with our local authority and CQC partners to continue our progress and sustain these improvements.”
