Wirral care home residents had 'unexplained bruising'

Ricki Bibi, from the care home, said she felt the report was unfair

A care home where some residents had "unexplained bruising" was unsafe, inspectors have said.

Residents at Homecrest Care Centre in Wallasey, Wirral, "were not always protected from the risk of abuse", the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

Rating the home "inadequate" inspectors said low staffing levels at night meant some residents may not have been evacuated in the event of a fire.

Ricki Bibi, from Homecrest, said she felt the report was unfair.

She said the CQC was given evidence of factual inaccuracies in the report, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Ms Bibi said she also wanted to reassure people that everyone being cared for at the home on Falkland Road was a priority and that residents were not in danger.

'Serious concern'

The report said some residents "had experienced unexplained bruising that had not been investigated and reported appropriately to protect them from harm".

It also said staffing levels "were not safe", with rotas showing that on occasions there were only two care staff on duty instead of four.

"Fire safety arrangements were not adequate, staffing levels at night were a serious concern as they were not sufficient to ensure all people could be evacuated in the event of a fire," the report added.

"The fire evacuation procedure was unclear and there was not enough evacuation equipment in place to help people evacuate."

The report also said that domestic staff "struggled to maintain standards of cleanliness across the home in the time allocated".

"A domestic member of staff told us, 'I can't clean [the] whole home, I just do what I can'," it added.

This had an impact on the care home's efforts to prevent and control infections, such as Covid-19, the report said.

Councillor Yvonne Nolan, chair of Wirral Council's adult social care committee, said: "Wirral Health and Care Commissioning have been working closely with the owner and the manager of Homecrest following the CQC inspection.

"A voluntary suspension on new admissions to this care home has been in place since 19th November whilst improvements are made within the home."