Care home residents 'ate breakfast next to open commode', official report reveals
A Staffordshire care home where residents ate breakfast next to an open commode full of human waste has been placed into special measures.
Butterhill House, in Coppenhall, near Stafford, has been rated inadequate.
A catalogue of failings found by inspectors included residents not getting prescribed medicines, one sleeping in a high-profiling bed that had been labelled 'do not use' after failing an appliance test and commode pots not being emptied after use.
One resident even ate their breakfast next to an open commode full of human waste, a damning report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has revealed.
Read the full report here
CQC inspectors ruled that the service was not safe, not caring, not effective, not responsive and not well led – rating it inadequate in every category following an unannounced visit on August 15 and 16.
A previous inspection was carried out by the care watchdog in April when the home was rated as 'requires improvement'.
On the home's safety, a report prepared after the August visit said: "We observed poor moving and handling techniques and saw people were at risk of slipping out of wheelchairs.
"We observed a person who used the service, who was dependent on staff for all activities of daily living, had slept in a high profiling bed that had been condemned and labelled clearly, do not use.
"We saw a red sticker had been placed on the plug following a portable appliance test in July 2015, which said 'rejected do not use'.
"In people's bedrooms we saw commode pots were not emptied after use. We saw care staff had served breakfast to one person, the commode had been used but care staff had not attended to it or replaced the lid.
"The person had to eat their breakfast next to an open commode full of human waste. We saw commode pots in other people's bedrooms that had not been washed or disinfected to reduce the risks of cross infection.
"We saw one pot that was extremely dirty with brown and black stains around the rim and inside the pot."
The service has since been taken over, with its new director Ricki Bibi insisting that the home has been 'turned around' in just a matter of weeks.
She said: "We took over a couple of weeks ago and working with non-compliant care homes is what I do.
"I am fully aware of what needs to be done, with most of it having already been carried out.
"In the last four weeks the home has been turned around. All the staff who were not compliant have gone. I am committed to keeping the home open."
