Home care service told it must improve after staff failed to turn up
A care service provider which looks after hundreds of older adults in their own homes has been to improve by the Care Quality Commission.
Inspectors found that staff at Tipton Care Home Limited failed to arrive at the homes of patients on a number of occasions - because staff were down to cover two shifts at once.
The care home, on Bloomfield Road, was criticised for the way the service is led. Inspectors also found issues with staff rotas and medicine records.
It was rated by Care Quality Commission inspectors are 'requiring improvement' across the board - which covers safety, care and leadership.
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The service provides care for adults of all ages including dementia patients, those with learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments.
Tipton Home Care provides care for 338 people in total who across the Black Country in Tipton, Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Yew Tree Walsall, Great Barr and Dudley.
The inspection report states: "The service was not well led because people could not consistently contact the office by telephone on a timely basis when needed and did not receive support on a timely basis."
An issue that inspector was that staff members would be expected to be delivering care at two people's homes and one time, and travelling time was not scheduled into the staff's rotas.
An inspector said: "Care staff were expected to be at two people's homes at the same time. We found evidence of this on all the care staff rotas we looked at. This would therefore result in care staff rushing or being late to their next call as travelling time was not being accounted for within their rotas. "
Officers were told that this was not the case but evidence was found on care staff rotas leading to a breach of regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Medicine records have also been criticised due to a number of unexplained gaps where it was unclear as to whether medicines had been given.
Officers from the CQC found that the records didn't have identified dates as to when the amount and times medicines should be given.
Officers provided the service 48 hours notice due to the manager often being out of the office.
The inspection was the first since it registered with the CQC on February 10 2014.
The provider has been told it needs to ensure that the service is better governed, medicine regulation needs to improve and people receiving the service need to access the office effectively.
The care home declined to comment.
