CQC Cancels Dorset Residential Care Home’s Registration

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken enforcement action to cancel the registration of the service providers of Thistlegate House in Dorset to protect the safety and welfare of people in its care.

The providers appealed this decision to cancel but the tribunal found in the CQC’s favour, concluding that CQC’s evidence was overwhelming and the decision to cancel was proportionate and necessary.

The CQC’s decision to cancel the registration of the provider means they can no longer legally operate a residential home service from its premises at Thistlegate House in Charmouth, Dorset or any other premises that CQC would regulate in England.

Inspectors visited the home five times since January 2013 with the latest inspection taking place in April 2016. Major concerns in relation to the quality, safety and monitoring of the service were found at each inspection. The management stated that they fully complied with the regulations but inspectors found no evidence of this.

There was a continued failure to ensure that people were protected from risks and inspectors found that there were breaches in regulations on every inspection. Despite a number of enforcement measures being put in place to bring about fundamental change to the service. This action had not resulted in people receiving the care appropriate to their needs.

There was a continued lack of action to mitigate risks. These included people not receiving their medicines safely and safeguards not being in place to protect people from abuse. Safeguarding issues raised by Dorset County Council had not been investigated by the providers.

In addition, there was a consistent lack of training and supervision support provided for staff this was putting people at risk of unsafe care or care that was not appropriate to their needs and people in the home were sometimes treated in ways that were not respectful. End of life wishes had not been discussed or recorded.

Deborah Ivanova, Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care in CQC’s south region, said:

“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care and the owners of Thistlegate House have failed their residents.

“The provider was placing people at significant risk of receiving inappropriate or unsafe care and made little attempt to address the issues we identified despite having several opportunities. For this reason we had no option but to cancel the registration.

“Our priority is always the safety of people using health and social care services and we would not consider this kind of action if we did not feel there was a serious risk to people, their health and wellbeing or that the environment they were in was unsafe.”

“I hope the action we have taken together with the tribunal decision should send a strong public message that we will not hesitate to use our powers to take tough action if we have concerns about the care and welfare of people who use services. We will work with providers to encourage improvement but if this is not in place then our role is to take action to protect those who are at risk of harm”.