AN Oxford care home that opened last year has failed five out of seven categories it was inspected on by the official watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said action is needed on issues identified in a September visit to Sanctuary Group’s Iffley Residential and Nursing Home, including the high use of agency staff.

It said the home met a standard around care and welfare of residents, including nursing and dementia care.

And the CQC said residents were positive about the Anne Greenwood Close home and care plans were “well organised and easy to find”.

Our top stories

The home, which takes up to 76 people, met another standard around staffing levels.

But workers said a “high use” of temporary agency staff “sometimes made things difficult”.

The CQC report said: “Several people told us agency staff did not understand and meet their needs as well as the permanent staff.

“This resulted in inconsistencies in how they received their care.”

The regulator demanded action over nutrition, medicines management, requirements relating to workers, supporting workers and assessing services.

All had a minor impact on residents except supporting workers, which had a moderate impact, it said. It demanded an action plan by Tuesday.

It criticised “unreliable” food and fluid records as these were filled out after a resident had eaten, with workers saying they were an “educated guess”.

Charts for second-floor residents had not been completed for one day, it said, including those for a person who was losing weight.

The report said “accurate records had not been maintained of medicines administered or offered to people”.

Some medication sheets had not been signed to show they had been given at the home, which opened in January 2013, it said.

On requirements relating to workers, it said no background checks had been done on two of three agency staff and “only their first names were known”.

A photograph was not on the file for the third and some staff had not attended all training courses to “support people safely”.

These included training for dementia, fire safety, moving and handling and safeguarding adults from abuse.

One manager said “they had not had the time to identify what was needed for each member of staff”.

Systems were in place to assess the service but it said it could not be confident “that enough was being done by the provider to check progress”.

For example, one person’s medication should have been reviewed monthly but had not been since March.

Sanctuary spokesman Lindsay Evans said: “The CQC’s recent report, following an inspection early last month, highlighted some areas in need of improvement and we can confirm we had already been working on these prior to the report, having taken steps to address them.”

It has “reinforced” the importance of record keeping, is seeking extra staff and is “encouraged” by positive comments from residents and families.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.