Melton care home in 'special measures' after inspectors visit

Residents of The Amwell, on Asfordby Road, were regularly heard ‘crying out for help’, relatives told a healthcare watchdog.

Concerns raised with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) by families led to an early inspection of The Amwell, in Melton.

The findings of December’s visit have just been revealed – they flagged up a number of safety, cleanliness and leadership failures at the home, leading to its rating dropping from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’.

Inspectors said the home was also in breach of five legal regulations, including in relation to consent, safe care and treatment, and nutrition and hydration. It has now been placed in special measures by the CQC.

The home, which cares for up to 88 older people who have physical disabilities and conditions such as dementia, apologised for the failings and said it had invested in a long-term plan to address the issues.

People were also ‘at risk of injury from falls’ because their walking aids were left out of reach, inspectors found.

The team saw examples of this over multiple days during their visit, according to the report.

Medicines were also being administered ‘unsafely or incorrectly’, the team said.

There were also ‘a significant number of contradictions’ across a ‘wide range of people’s care records’, meaning staff ‘did not have an accurate picture’ of their needs.

There were also not ‘enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff’ at the home, the report added.

One relative told the CQC: “When I walk in the corridors there is always someone crying out for help and no staff go.

"And it’s not because they don’t care but just because they don’t have enough staff.”

Gaps in training records indicated some staff had not ‘received required training to meet people’s needs safely’, the CQC said.

Hygiene issues were also discovered by inspectors and concerns around the hydration of residents were also raised in the report.

Staff at the home told the CQC the previous leaders ‘swept’ concerns, including a safeguarding incident, ‘under the carpet’.

The report did acknowledge that a ‘turnaround manager’ had been employed at the home, noting this individual was ‘open and honest’ about concerns across the service, and ‘effective at communicating the changes’ already made in the week he had been there.

A spokeswoman for The Amwell told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “The health and wellbeing of our residents is our absolute priority and we always take feedback from the CQC extremely seriously and have invested in long-term action to ensure we are delivering the highest standards of care.

"We would like to reassure our residents and their families that the findings of this inspection, which took place last year, are in no way reflective of the current quality of care being delivered at the home today.

“Our team had already recognised the challenges the home was facing ahead of the inspection last year, and began taking robust action to address them in Autumn 2024. This included the appointment of a new regional leadership team and a turnaround manager to lead meaningful and sustained improvements at the service.

“We sincerely apologise that at the time of the inspection we fell short of the high standards we set for ourselves. "