Yet Another Care Home Rated 'Inadequate'.

Not sure I pay too much attention to CQC reports. After they’d visited my mother’s very good care home, the staff apologised to me that during the visit they’d taken my mother, who had advanced dementia, to an activity she couldn’t possibly participate in, and certainly couldn’t enjoy - ‘because anyone ‘just sitting’ would mean a black mark. My poor mother was capable of nothing but ‘just sitting’, usually with her eyes closed.
It was a dementia-only care home - you’d think the inspectors would understand what the condition can mean.

I have been looking at reports of homes in my area just this week.
All the visits were unannounced here.

I bumped into someone at the gym who actually does inspections. She said to me something like "I hope care home x is still going if I ever need care"
It was the way the residents always seemed happy that drew her there.
It wasn't one of the "outstanding: ones, interestingly.

It must be different for different areas, my family have 5 homes for autistic adults, CQC was a nightmare for the first one. I find them really strict. We have a waiting list and the paramedics said it was one of the nicest homes they have ever been to, I felt really proud of my sons when they told me that.

One of my carers is retiring next year , she loves working here
and is really sad about leaving

Aveline

That's very interesting. Glad things have improved. Your last comment reminded me of a lady I met. She was currently off work and having chemotherapy. She told me she was desperate to get back to work. She worked in a care home and loved it there. She missed the residents and the other staff. Obviously a happy place to work.

And that’s exactly how I feel working in my care home…🤗

That's very interesting. Glad things have improved. Your last comment reminded me of a lady I met. She was currently off work and having chemotherapy. She told me she was desperate to get back to work. She worked in a care home and loved it there. She missed the residents and the other staff. Obviously a happy place to work.

We had cause to contact the CQC about the care home my sil was in. After several incidents , the final straw was when we enquired about sil's missing dentures. We decided enough was enough and contacted CQC. We heard nothing from CQC. Unknown to us our complaint was taken seriously. A couple of months after our complaint we arrived to collect sil for her final appointment at the dentist to be told that we could come inside to collect sil as the manager and several other staff members had been replaced. What a transformation. Clean carpets, no unpleasant smells, happy residents enjoying activities and music of their era and, very importantly, happy staff.

We have some very swanky ones too, with very high fees, but if you delve into who they actually accept, there is only one which is exclusively private. Two thirds of the total clientele of care homes is funded either by local authorities or by the NHS, and the vast majority of homes need the guaranteed income that provides. Many next of kin pay the top up fee to enable their loved one to live there, and other clients are none the wiser.

Casdon

Unless the area you live is very different to mine, you’ll find it difficult to find a nursing home, as opposed to a residential home, which takes only self funded clients though, they are very few and far between.

Plenty where I am, they are almost like hotels now.

Unless the area you live is very different to mine, you’ll find it difficult to find a nursing home, as opposed to a residential home, which takes only self funded clients though, they are very few and far between.

I am not sure I would go as far as you Goldenooldie15. My concern is that the residents of a home taking state aided patients are expected to subsidise the local councils failure to pay fees. The subsidy should either not be expected ot spread over all those in care homes, or all older people.

To single out one (very) small subset of people, just because the care home they chose to move to accepted council financed residents, is deeply unjust.

I am with M0nika on this. Paid the taxes required all my life so that those who need help can get it, and I do not wish to keep paying for those who are unable, for whatever reason, to pay for themselves. As much as I feel sympathetic for those who cannot they are alas simply not my responsibility.

I don't think the CQC are worth the money they cost to run. Their inspections are very out of date and when something goes wrong, they are just hopeless. My mother was left at death's door by a mistake the Care Home made. She had to be rushed to hospital and the Care Home gave the ambulance service the wrong information, including who her next of kin was. The hospital insisted that my mother was seen without the true next of kin being with her (me) despite the fact that Mum was semi-conscious and suffering from dementia. Consequently her medical records were wrong too because they took what the ambulance people said unbeknownst to us. We initiated an official complaint with the CQC. They took absolutely no notice to our testimony and despite us explaining how the medical records had been wrong, they decided there was no case to answer because they found that the hospital records backed up the care home's story. It was a complete whitewash. I tried to get the hospital to put the record right but the Doctors just would not come back to me or answer the phone.
My mother's care fees in her new home are £10,500 per month plus the home gets the nursing fees from the Government. I am sorry if anyone is offended but I do resent that Mum is paying approximately 40% more than she should because the Council will not pay the full fees for state assisted clients. On top of that, if I invest the money my Mum got for selling her childhood home, she will be taxed to the hilt on the interest. If, although it is looking unlikely, she dies leaving any of her money, she will be taxed on that too. I'm all for people paying their dues but this seems like daylight robbery.

My mother was self-financing in a care home until her life savings ran out after 3 years. Then she had to move. It was very upsetting for all concerned so beware of this if a home does not take council funded residents.

Shinamae

The care home I worked in previous to this one, I worked in for seven years and that one,with about three weeks notice we were told it was closing
Broke my heart because I really did love working there luckily I have found another home that I really love working in so it’s all worked out in the end
We do have a very good activities coordinator and also all our staff are very caring, you certainly don’t go into care for the money… I could get more working in a Wetherspoons than I get at my care home, but the job satisfaction would be nowhere near as rewarding
I’m 72 now and will carry on working as long as I can. I only do 18 hours a week every afternoon is two till eight but as I said so many times before I love my job.
Obviously the only downside is when our residents die and that is very distressing for a lot of the staff because some residents don’t have any family or no family that visits and we become like their family and that is a privilege but heartbroken when they go..

Not every afternoon, three afternoons a week 🤷‍♀️

The care home I worked in previous to this one, I worked in for seven years and that one,with about three weeks notice we were told it was closing
Broke my heart because I really did love working there luckily I have found another home that I really love working in so it’s all worked out in the end
We do have a very good activities coordinator and also all our staff are very caring, you certainly don’t go into care for the money… I could get more working in a Wetherspoons than I get at my care home, but the job satisfaction would be nowhere near as rewarding
I’m 72 now and will carry on working as long as I can. I only do 18 hours a week every afternoon is two till eight but as I said so many times before I love my job.
Obviously the only downside is when our residents die and that is very distressing for a lot of the staff because some residents don’t have any family or no family that visits and we become like their family and that is a privilege but heartbroken when they go..

Care homes do close sadly. Sometimes the costs are impossible to reconcile with good quality care.

As a retired inspector told me: councils are between a rock and a hard place. Unscrupulous owners know that there is little chance of being closed because ( stating the obvious here) the council would have the problem of finding places for the homeless residents 😥
So, inspectors have to walk a very fine line between a home that is putting residents in danger and the general area not being as clean and sparkling as it should be.
One job that does raise the scoring is an activities coordinator.
One home that I’m very familiar with ( family work there) leaves a lot to be desired but they do have an activities coordinator 🤔

Thank you but sounds like another person with a better position in life taking a dig at those of us who through no fault of their own have ended up on the ‘bottom of the pack! Has happened too many times since having to take early medical retirement when I wanted to stay in the job I loved & had worked for from school! Sorry if I offend but I probably do have a chip on my shoulder as is something else I have been told when trying to defend myself against being called things like ‘dole hole scrounger’ by a gentleman in a supermarket! Why I do not know apart from the fact that I have had to rely on a stick for years. Maybe my face just did not fit or he thought I was in his way! Also told me I should put myself in a Home if i could find one that would take me! Thank you Anniebach for your words!

SillyNanny321 Please do not read into my post what is not there. I said nothing at all about people living off the state. My complaint was narrowly focussed on local councils who expect the specific residents of specific care homes where they place residents to finacially subsidise those they place there.

The fault lies with the councils who are unwilling to pay the true cost of keeping someone in care. I thought I had made it clear that I have no argument with the state assisted residents themselves, nor did I make any comment on the difficult lives many have lived for them to need the help of the state.

Let me say it again, it is the councils at fault who expect those already resident in the home who are self financing to effectively pay an extra levy specific to their home to enable those who are statefunded to live their. A universal levy on all care home residents, or all taxpayers would be better and fairer system. Councils riding on the backs of fellow residents who are often in no position to move is unjust and wrong.

SillyNsnny please try to ignore it, it is not true

I will be one of your state financed residents one day probably sooner than later & get sick of opinions like yours MOnica! Have been looked down on most of the last 40 years after being medically retired! Sick of being sneered at for ‘living off the state’! I dont like the way my life has ended up & dread going into a home that does not like having to take the bottom of the pack as I have been called! Did not ask for this or to be treated like I have the plague!

henetha If you see a home you like, see if you can go on a waiting list.

My aunt knew that she would need residential care if her DH predeceased her, so she had been to see some homes, liked one and put her name on a list. She soon reached the top of it and knew that if she did need care she would get the next available room. As it happened she died first, so never needed to go into a care home.

Quite separately i have told my children never to put me in a home that takes people paod for by the state. Nothing to do with snobbishness or anything, but as Liz46 points out self financing residents pay higher fees to subsidise those supported by the state.

I have never objected to paying all the tax I am due to pay, and on similar matters of principle I am happy to pay Inheritance tax and would never try to dispose of money so that my care is state aided. But I really, really object to these effectively personalised taxes inflicted on small groups of helpless residents in care homes that depend on them to pay extra to subsidise the state financed residents.

That makes perfect sense, Aveline. Thank you.

My mother had dementia and one of her neighbours told me to go and see her if my mother had to go into a home. When the time came, I went to see the neighbour and discovered that she was a hairdresser who goes round homes.
She made a very good recommendation.
The annoying thing was that there were people there who were being paid for by the tax payer and the home got less from them than we were paying from the sale of mum's house.