By Samantha Jones-
The manager of a care home in West London it is hiring five more staff and taking greater measures of improvement, after it came under fire when staff did not realise that a vulnerable female patient of 93 years of age had gone missing last August.
It follows a damning report by the health watchdog which revealed that workers at Kenton House, which costs up to £976 a week, were at risk of extreme tiredness due to staff shortages and had worked up to 81 hours in just one week. Revelation that one of its vulnerable patients with severe mental health issues had gone missing for hours on the August alarmed inspectors who had good reason to fear that the situation could have ended up being tragic.
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The care home only has two staff which had been working long hours sometimes becoming very tired because of it. Ut became evident that more staff were needed to effectively man the care home.
Manager Judith Boikhutso, told The Eye Of Media.Com that she has also put more security measures in place, and has hired five more staff after a vulnerable patient with mental health issues went missing for a couple of hours and was nowhere to be found.
”It was a one-off situation, the patient initially went from the fifth floor to see someone on the ground floor. It absolutely shouldn’t have happened, and we have taking steps to prevent a repeat of such thing. We will have an additional five staff joining us very soon, and we now keep a watchful eye on this particular patient, but all our patients are well supervised”, she said.
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The elderly patient who suffers from a complex form of dementia and is a danger to herself when unsupervised, managed to leave the care home without trace for a few hours and wondered into the street.
She had initially left the fifth floor to visit another resident on the ground floor, before disappearing out of the care home. A bell has now been placed on her door to alert staff each time she comes out of the building.
The report found multiple regulations had been broken and that the home did not have a registered manager and the number of staff on duty had recently been cut from three to two.
Staff pointed to insufficient carers to ensure safety and get the care they needed during the night. exposed a litany of failings in the system, including the fact that a patient had recently left the home at night while only two workers were on duty. They were helping a patient on the first floor, meaning the ground floor had been left unattended.
Inspectors said some staff had worked a “significant number of hours” in July and August, including one person who had worked 81 hours in one week and another who had worked 73.5 hours.
Some staff had worked afternoon and night shifts back-to-back, and one person had worked a 13.5-hour day shift with an 11.5-hour night shift straight after.
The report said: “There was no indication that people were harmed but staff were at risk of being excessively tired, which could have an impact on people’s care and safety.”
Patients said they felt safe at the home and that it had a “nice atmosphere” while relatives said they felt satisfied by the care.
The care home was previously rated ‘good’ – the second highest rating – in 2018. The downgrade means it will be monitored by the CQC who will request an action plan for improvements.
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