CQC takes action to protect the welfare of people by cancelling a Cheshire nursing home's registration

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken action to cancel the registration of a care home in Cheshire which was failing to provide safe or effective services.  

CQC’s decision to cancel the registration of Lilycross Homes Limited means that legally they can no longer provide care services at the home in Widnes, Cheshire.

Inspectors took this action because they had serious concerns about the service and the risks to people living at Lilycross Care Centre, following an inspection in July and August 2015. A full report of the inspection has been published at: http://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-136248315

 Inspectors concerns included:

• The provider had not taken action to improve sufficient levels of experienced and suitably trained staff within the home, in order to ensure people’s needs were consistently met. There was a heavy reliance on bank and agency staff to ensure safe staffing levels.
• People were not protected against the risks associated with unsafe use and management of medicines.
• Inspectors were concerned that where people’s weight had significantly changed and were not supported to maintain their health, little or no action had been taken to address this.
• An evaluation conducted by the local authority, shared with CQC, showed that ten people were found to have had their call bells out of their reach which meant they could not summon assistance when needed.
• Residents’ care plans were not being updated regularly or with new information to ensure staff were fully aware of developing concerns or people’s changing care needs.
• There were still no systems in place to monitor the quality of service being provided.

 Following the inspection CQC applied to North Cheshire Magistrates Court to cancel the registration of Lilycross Homes Limited with immediate effect. 

Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at CQC, said:

“Lillycross Care Centre let down the people in its care, so we decided to take swift action to protect the safety and wellbeing of people using the service by moving to urgently cancel the provider’s registration.

“Taking action leading to the closure of any service is not something that we take lightly, but when we find such poor practice we must take action to protect the safety and welfare of people.

“We worked closely with the local authority to ensure that all residents were able to move to alternative accommodation where they were safe from harm and where their needs could be fully met.”