Wirral nursing home slammed by inspectors as it receives 'inadequate' rating for sixth time

Sandrock Nursing Home in Wallasey has now been rated ‘inadequate’ six times and placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) since April 2021. Before this it had been in and out of being rated ‘inadequate’ since June 2017 though it was rated ‘good’ in April 2019.

Wirral Council had also suspended putting new people in the home who were under its care since July 2021, due to quality of care concerns. The home was previously run by Prasur Investments Limited. This was made public due to a policy brought in by the council to address poor care home standards though information about the care home is no longer available on the council’s website.

In January 2024, the CQC said it was moving people out of the home as it failed to address areas of concern. The home provides care for up to 28 people but at the time of the inspection in April 2024, only seven people lived there.

The CQC said it would have taken enforcement action but Prasur had sold the service to Frank Care Ltd. The CQC said the new owners are “hoping to take over the service with minimum disruption for people living there.”

The latest inspection found three breaches of “legal regulations in relation to the environment and building, safeguarding people from abuse, staffing, infection prevention and control, governance arrangements and medicines management.” The conditions in the home placed people “at risk of abuse” and there was no registered manager in post after a previous employee in a leadership role was struck off.

The CQC report, due to be published soon, said: “While people and relatives we spoke to expressed that they were generally happy with their care, our assessment found people were not being supported in line with the expected standards. People and relatives, we spoke with told us staff were caring and knew them well. We also observed some kind and caring interactions between people and staff.”

The home was described as “starting to look a bit run down” with “ areas that need re-decorating, and some furniture could do with replacing.” However relatives who spoke to the CQC said they felt people felt safe and “positive interactions” were seen between staff and patients.

However the CQC found a water leak, a corridor leading to rooms and the medicines room had “damp on the walls” and “a strong odious smell of urine.” Gutters were “overflowing with plant materials” and other parts of the building were damaged.

An area was cordoned off with “pieces of timber in the rear side garden with nails sticking out” while birds made nests directly outside windows. Inspectors found “occupied and unoccupied bedrooms were in very poor condition” with “stains, damp patches and odious stale smells in most of the unoccupied rooms of the premises.”

Evacuation signage was found broken on the floor. This was not resolved on the second day even though inspectors had highlighted it.

Inspectors said: “All the staff we spoke to told us that the building was in desperate need of updating and that the furniture was old and they couldn’t remember when it was last replaced. They told us that housekeeping staff tried to keep the environment clean and they all worked hard to keep people safe from risk of infections.”

Relatives of those living in the home praised the staff there and said “they try to be as good carers for their patients as they can be.” However the provider “was not proactive in making positive changes” and “had failed to employ suitably qualified staff.”

This put people “at risk of avoidable harm” and annual reviews weren’t done “to ensure that they gave medicines safely.” When inspectors asked for an improvement plan for the building, they did not get one and weren’t told if the owners planned to make the needed improvements to the building.

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Frank Care Ltd took over the home three months ago. Since then, they told the LDRS they have invested £200,000 into the building and were in the process of completely refurbishing the ground floor. Struck off staff have been removed, all staff have been made to go through mandatory training, new clinical leads, and a new manager has been appointed with 30 years experience.

Ronny Ghuman, a director for Frank Care Sandrock Ltd who has taken the home over, said: “We are now in a good place. It got such a bad reputation and it’s turned over a new leaf. It’s a completely new place. It needed infrastructure changes and that was why it was so important for us to comply with the CQC and ensure our clients are getting the best quality of life.

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