Multiple safety concerns at dementia care home

Inspectors described the ongoing work at the home in October as "untidy and chaotic"

A care home has been branded "inadequate" after residents were put in danger by a dangling electrical wire during maintenance work.

Pinglenook Residential Home in Barrow Upon Soar, Loughborough, was visited again by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in October after failings were first identified in April.

Management and safety at the home received the lowest score by inspectors in the latest review.

A director for the home said they accepted the findings from the time but the issues had since been rectified.

Food concerns

The home, which can house up to 16 people living with dementia, had 11 residents using the service at the time of the inspection.

Inspectors said people "did not always have enough to eat and drink".

Their report said there was "very little evidence" of any food - other than biscuits - being offered to people after 17:00 and on some charts, nothing after 14:00.

CQC officials noted the home was undergoing maintenance and decoration work across the building at the time of the inspection.

Inspectors said they found a live electrical wire dangling from the ceiling for five days and the floor in the communal dining room was found to be "damaged and uneven".

Dirty showers

The report detailed that some people's bedrooms and communal corridors were full of decorating materials, maintenance rubbish and plaster dust.

Inspectors described the scene as "untidy and chaotic".

In addition, a number of hot water outlets "exceeded maximum safe temperature limits" and residents were "exposed to the risk of burns and scalds", inspectors said.

Some areas of the premises "were not clean" such as the communal shower room and staff toilet.

Inspectors also said many of the toilets and hand wash basins "did not look clean and were coated in limescale".

'No issues now'

Greg Rielly, the CQC's head of inspection for adult social care, said: “When we inspected Pinglenook Residential Home, it was concerning and disappointing to see that little action had been taken since our last inspection to improve the quality of care for people.

"These concerns mainly related to the environment that Pinglenook expected people to live in but also identified issues about people having sufficient food and drink."

Ravi Amuguran, environmental director at Pinglenook Residential Home, said he had taken on the site earlier in the year and "huge improvements" had to be undertaken.

"The findings are what they are, I'm not disputing that," he said.

"But I've had to take the effort to bring this home up to scratch and bring everything up to standard - inside and outside the home. It needed a lot of work.

"There are no issues of this nature now."