Elderly residents at a York care home were fed sandwiches and soup every night for a week – and twice for lunch too – a report has revealed.
Minster Grange Care Home on Haxby Road was also deemed unsafe and insecure, and has been placed into special measures.
It follows a visit by Care Quality Commission inspectors to the home.
In their report, the CQC found:
- there were too few staff to ‘offer shower or baths and support with hydration’
- residents had to wait long periods of time for food
- residents were put at risk of Covid-19 infection and staff wore incorrect PPE
- the building was not secure
- systems did not protect residents from abuse.
The CQC undertook the inspection after it “received concerns in relation to staffing, mental capacity act, person centred care and leadership of the service”.
At risk of Covid
Meal times highlighted the problems at Minster Grange, the inspectors said.
There were no menus and residents weren’t able to choose their meals. “Staff told us people were offered the same tea every night consisting of sandwiches and soup.
“We reviewed people’s monitoring charts which showed for example one person had sandwiches for their tea every day plus two days for their lunch.”
Residents who required modified meals didn’t receive a choice of what they wished to eat. “Staff supporting people with their adapted meals were unaware what food they were giving to people.”
The inspection also raised concerns relating to coronavirus protection. “Procedures were not in place to safely support people in isolation in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This put people, staff, relatives and others at risk of the spread of infection.”
Leadership in the home had failed to improve despite being highlighted as an issue during the last inspection in October 2020. Bosses “repeatedly failed to learn lessons from feedback and incidents leaving people at risk of potential harm”.
Relatives of people in Minster Grange struggled to get through by phone and complained of a lack of feedback.
‘Kind’ staff under pressure
Minster Grange was providing personal and nursing care to 58 people at the time of the inspection, although it is registered to support up to 83 older people.
“Staff were observed to be kind and caring. However, they were under increased pressure due to the failings identified in this report and therefore unable to deliver the care they wanted to,” the report said.
“Staff were not fully engaged in the service as they did not feel listened to. Feedback included, ‘No one is going to listen to you, the head office has given us the impression they don’t care about us.
“‘We are just numbers there is no communication from them. I cannot see the point in discussing anything now as they do not do anything’.”
The CQC rated Minster Grange as inadequate and has set out a range of actions for it to undertake to improve the service.
We have asked its owners, the Maria Mallaband Care Group based in Leeds, for a comment.