A Bermondsey care home for the elderly has been placed into ‘special measures’ by a health watchdog, and has been given six months to make ‘significant improvements’.
A report by the Care Quality Commission, following a surprise inspection at Tower Bridge Care Home, said that an elderly resident had to wait seventeen hours for a drink last month
It also said that residents were “not protected against malnutrition and dehydration” and that, as well as the seventeen hour wait for a drink, one resident was not served breakfast because they were asleep.
The report, which slammed the care home as “inadequate”, also said that a number of mistakes were made when administering medicine to residents, from overdosing to incorrect drugs being used.
It said: “One person received more sedating medicine than required, one person did not receive sufficient medicine to help manage their mental illness and one person received medicine they did not require which could have had a negative impact on their health.”
The centre has now been placed under “special measures”, which means that Southwark Council will not be referring any more elderly people there. It will be given six months to make “significant improvements” before another inspection takes place.
A spokesperson for HC-One, who run the centre, told the News that since the inspection the Tower Bridge home had appointed several new people to the management and nursing teams, as well as implementing a “robust” new drug administration system.
Cllr Stephanie Cryan, Southwark cabinet member for adult social care and financial inclusion, said: “As the local authority we expect care providers operating in the borough to provide our residents with the highest quality care and support. It is extremely disappointing that the provider HC-One is failing to meet the national standards for quality of care at Tower Bridge Care Centre.
“Over the coming months we will be working with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS colleagues and our partners, to ensure that the centre urgently addresses the CQC requirements and improves its standards of care to what we, the people being cared for and their relatives, expect from the provider.”
A spokesperson for HC-One said: “Nothing is more important to us than the health, safety and wellbeing of each person we support. We took the points raised by the Care Quality Commission extremely seriously, and immediately implemented a comprehensive and robust action plan to address their feedback.”
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