At-home care service “put people at risk of harm”, according to report
By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter
An at-home care service has been criticised in a damning report after inspectors were told one patient was given dinner straight after breakfast.
Inspectors also heard that staff “refused” to properly wash or dress a patient around the last week of their life.
CRG Homecare Wandsworth is said to have put people at risk of harm in a report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) this month.
After a remote inspection on February 22, the watchdog said “staff did not always turn up for shifts” and rated the service “inadequate” overall.
Most feedback given to inspectors was negative about staff punctuality and time spent with patients, with one person saying their carer sometimes stayed for five minutes instead of 30.
Another patient told inspectors their carer didn’t turn up “seven or eight times”.
The report said: “Some staff did not support people with various aspects of their care such as meal preparation, leaving them unwashed, improperly dressed or left them in distress.
“Staff attended calls much earlier than planned or very late without people’s consent to the changes to their preferences of when their care was delivered.”
The service, based at the Earlsfield Business Centre in Lydden Road, faced “overwhelmingly negative” feedback in relation to care safety.
One person quoted in the CQC report said: “Retrain all the staff, and management, employ the right people.
“One carer worked 14 days on the trot.” Another commented: “Shut it down and restart.”
The report also identified “widespread and significant shortfalls” in leadership, with a high turnover of managers and feedback from users and their family members showing care was not provided as planned.
A spokeswoman for CRG said: “At CRG, we strive to deliver the best quality care for our service users, and for our employees.
“On this particular occasion, we are working closely with the local authority and the team on the front line to raise the standards across the board.
“We have already improved the management provided on the ground and we have stopped taking on new service users for the time being.
“We continue to review our comprehensive action plan on a weekly basis.”
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