Councillors to discuss north-east care home’s progress on improvements

Councillors will discuss progress on improvements at a north-east care home at a meeting this week.

Monitors assessed Durnhythe Residential Care Home as weak in each of  five criteria following an inspection last year.

They found residents sitting in the dark because no member of staff had thought to turn on lights.

In other cases, they were found to be simply “staring into space” or fast asleep in public areas due to boredom and a lack of stimulation.

The Care Inspectorate report found it had failed to make improvements in the wake of a poor 2018 inspection.

However, an inspection in February noted that there were improvements after it was ordered to improve the way medicine was stored, the way quality of care is assessed and the way complaints were dealt with.

A number of actions have been undertaken by staff to improve the home, including around medicine and training on procedures around pharmacy.

Resident meetings have also been planned for the rest of the year, and feedback from the chats is to be used to help develop and update the service improvement plan.

A report will be brought before the council audit committee on Thursday.

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The report, which will go before councillors, states: “On receipt of the Care Inspectorate report, senior management immediately convened an Improvement Group to provide support to the Care Home to develop and implement an Action Plan. Some changes were also made to location management and temporary additional capacity created.

“The Care Inspectorate carried out a follow up visit to Durnhythe the week of 20
February 2020. The committee will note that the Inspectorate found evidence of improved performance and that the recommendations were found to have been met.

“The Improvement Group will continue to monitor progress over coming months
with a focus on implementing robust ongoing self-evaluation methodology for
the Care Home.

“There will continue to be enhanced senior management oversight and reports on progress or challenges will continue to be submitted to the integration joint board clinical and adult social work governance group.”

The report also outlines actions that are still in progress by the care home, including delivering financial management training to staff members likely to deal with residents money, and actions around implementing the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership complaints policy and procedure.

Councillors will discuss the report during a virtual meeting on Thursday.