A CARE provider has been placed in special measures after it received the lowest possible assessment from the care watchdog.
Care Quality Commission (CQC) officials carried out a brief inspection of Jadee’s Nursing Agency, based in Colchester, in November and the findings have now been published.
The registered manager, Dinah Obeng, was also criticized, with inspectors concluding that the level of safety and quality of leadership was inadequate.
When assessing how effective, caring and responsive the nursing agency was, the provider also fell short, with the three metrics assessed as needing improvement.
It meant that the care provider, who takes care of vulnerable people in their own home and also acts as a recruitment agency by providing social care staff to other homes, received the lowest possible rating.
In the 18-page document, officials noted numerous concerns, including staff giving patients the wrong medication and visits that were hours late.
The administration, personnel checks and risk assessments also turned out to be of a low standard.
A page of the report said that inspectors had determined that two new hires had not received checks from the Disclosure Barring Service (DBS), according to their official work files.
Inspectors found that when visits by healthcare workers were made to people later than expected, there was no evidence that this had been detected too late and subsequently acted upon.
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As part of the inspection, the CQC spoke with seven people who use the service, seven people’s loved ones about their experiences with the care and six employees.
While most people found caregivers to be caring and compassionate, there were shortcomings in the care they provided.
For example, a relative of a person said that his relative had already been put to bed at 6:10 p.m. because the driver had a long drive home.
Since they couldn’t get out of bed without help, they had to stay in bed until their morning call.
Inspecting the electronic call monitoring system, inspectors found that alerts, even if handled, were not categorized as such. had not been identified.
Jadee’s Nursing Agency was also found to be in violation of health law.
By law, healthcare providers must report to the CQC if allegations of abuse have been made against staff members, but inspectors found that this had not happened.
When Miss Obeng contacted the Gazette, she said she had appealed the CQC’s findings and its conduct of the inspection.
She said: “We are currently working with Suffolk County Council to address and implement any recommendation for a re-inspection of the service by March 17, 2023, and to continue to provide the best and safe care to our service users.
“The Inspectorate’s assessment was published before we received any response on the outcome of our appeal or representation, demonstrating the determination of the CQC not to maintain our representation.
“It appears that a decision to publish was already made before any of these could be reasonably assessed and considered.
“We were not made aware of the overall pass rate or percentage of achieving a rating that was unsatisfactory – we saw no marking or rating sheet, other than a report that told us inadequate and needs improvement in all five key areas. ”
