Bishop's Castle care home set to close over ongoing safety issues

Action would be taken to shut down Keegan's Court Residential Care Home after their latest inspection, the CQC said

Action is being taken to shut down a care home after inspectors found long-running failures are not being addressed and residents were at risk.

An inspection was carried out in June by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) at Keegan's Court Residential Care Home in Bishop's Castle, Shropshire.

In one case, staff did not know what to do to safely evacuate residents during a fire, inspectors said.

The care home operator has yet to respond to the report.

No ratings were given after the unannounced inspection so the home, on Kerry Lane, was still rated inadequate overall and remained in special measures.

Two previous inspections highlighted failures but resident's safety still remained at risk, the CQC said

The organisation added it had begun the process to stop the provider, Kevindale Residential Care Home, from operating the service to keep people safe.

Andy Brand, from the CQC, said they were concerned issues highlighted in the last inspections were still not addressed.

'Unacceptable'

The home provides care for up to 19 older people but at the time of the inspection there were just two living there.

In the report, inspectors said they found a former staff member, who was dismissed after allegations of abuse, was still going into the building regularly and had a door code.

Mr Brand said it meant people were at risk of harm from abuse and was "unacceptable".

In another case, when asked what they would do in an emergency, staff told inspectors they would call the on-call person to get them back to work but could not say who would phone the emergency services.

They added the two residents would need two staff to safely support them but could not tell the CQC how this would work when they were the only worker in the building.

"The service will remain in special measures to help us, and other partner organisations keep people safe until our enforcement action is complete," Mr Brand said.