A care home in Newcastle has been told that action must be taken to improve their services, after a service user was injured. 

Ferguson Lodge, in Old Benwell Village in Newcastle, has been rated "needs improvement" after inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in May, June and July.

Ferguson Lodge care home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 46 people, and works to support people with conditions related to dementia, physical disabilities, or sensory impairments.

During inspections, the CQC found that staff did not always recognise when an incident needed a safeguarding referral; insufficient staffing levels meant that staff were slow in responding to those who needed help; and medicines were not always managed safely. 

Though the inspection was prompted by an incident where a service user sustained a "serious injury", it was not examined by inspectors, as it is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any regulatory action should be taken.

However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the safety of equipment, and this inspection examined those risks.

Inspectors looked at the areas of safe, effective, and well-led. Following the inspection, the overall rating for the home, as well as the areas of safe and effective, have moved down from good to requires improvement. How well-led the service is has moved down from good to inadequate.

“When we inspected Ferguson Lodge, we were checking to see whether the service was well-led and provided safe and effective care to people living there. What we found was a poorly managed service where improvements are needed to ensure people remain safe in the place they call home.

“We identified shortfalls across the service including the assessment of risk, management of medicines, duty of candour, safeguarding, need for consent, staffing and governance.

“It’s important that equipment is checked regularly to keep people safe and free from harm, but regular checks on equipment such as wheelchairs and bed rails weren’t being undertaken to make sure they were safe for use.

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“Leaders also need to ensure there are enough staff to meet people’s needs. We observed staff unnecessarily restricting people and leaving them sat in chairs when they were busy completing other tasks.

 “However, we did see some positive areas of care. Staff displayed kind and caring attitudes towards people during their interactions despite being very busy, and people spoke positively about staff.

 “We will continue to monitor the service closely to ensure significant improvements are made. If we are not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action to ensure people are receiving the high standard of care they deserve.”