Newcastle's Bowland Lodge care home put in special measures

A struggling care home with a "history of failing to provide good standards of safety" has been placed in special measures.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found "no evidence lessons had been learned" at Newcastle's Bowland Lodge following critical reports dating back to 2017.

Inspectors highlighted "ongoing risks" in several areas and issued an overall rating of inadequate.

The care home said it would "work tirelessly to make improvements".

It provides care for up to 36 people with mental health conditions and dementia.

Having issued a warning notice in March last year, inspectors returned to the home in Grainger Park unannounced in January.

'Significant risk'

Among a number of problems, the CQC found:

• Ongoing risks relating to the environment, people's care and support

• The safeguarding system was "not always operated effectively" and it had not notified the watchdog of incidents

• Workers were "not always deployed effectively", despite sufficient levels of staffing

• A lack of a system to manage medicines

• Care plans did not reflect residents' needs with limited activities to occupy their attention

Inspectors found one resident had absconded six times, which it described as "totally unacceptable" as it had "put them at significant risk of harm".

Alison Chilton, CQC deputy director of operations in the North, warned that despite previous criticism the home was "still failing to provide safe care and we found further deterioration".

"People were at the risk of harm because leaders hadn't taken enough action to ensure effective systems were in place to improve the management of risk.

"This is particularly important for a service that looks after people who are vulnerable because of their dementia-related condition or mental health.

"We will continue to monitor the service closely and if we're not assured improvements have been made and embedded, we will not hesitate to use further enforcement powers to keep people safe."

She added the home had developed an action plan to address the issues.

In a statement, Bowland Lodge said it was "committed to providing quality care" and was disappointed by the CQC's findings.

It vowed to "work tirelessly to make improvements and to change our systems and processes" in order to reach full compliance with health and social care regulations.

"We have appointed a new manager and continue to work closely with the local authority, CQC and our senior staff to improve," it added.