The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has branded Cerne Abbas Care Home in Dorset as inadequate in all areas in a report published 2 December 2014.
The watchdog visited the facility in July 2014 and has now published its findings. The CQC says since its inspection the home has now closed.
It said the home was poorly maintained and put people at risk of harm. A total of 38 people were living there at the time of the inspection.
The CQC looks at five key areas, safety, effectiveness and if the service is caring, responsive and well-led. All were deemed inadequate.
Among other observations, the inspection report noted that:
“Armchairs, wheelchairs and walking frames were not clean some were covered in general dirt and grime. Some parts of the home, especially atrium, smelt of urine.
“We saw that the clinical waste bins outside of the home were unlocked and there was an accumulation of used continence aids and used plastic gloves. This demonstrated that the home was not being effectively cleaned which meant that people were at risk of healthcare acquired infections through cross contamination.”
It is this latter point that attracts our attention. Go to any NHS hospital and somewhere you might find an unlocked and accessible healthcare waste cart; in a substantial number of hospitals, most or all carts will be unlocked and accessible, 24 hours a day, for anyone who cares to delve within.
Clearly, the regulation of healthcare premises, and in this case of private sector operators, is not the correct place for supervision and enforcement of healthcare waste management standards or of infection prevention and control performance. It is in some respects a last resort, in circumstances where the Environment Agency and Department of health, Local Authorities and HSE must work collaboratively to ensure that these basic standards of waste management performance are adopted and maintained.
Clearly, since the 2006 Clinical Waste Management Forum/Blenkharn Environmental healthcare waste management audit, it standards of performance are getting no better
see Standards of clinical waste management in UK hospitals