A Dundee care home for brain-injured people has suspended admissions following a threat of closure due to its failure to improve standards of care for residents.
Linlathen Neurodisability Centre on Arbroath Road, which received a critical report from the Care Commission recently, has now been issued with a formal improvement notice from the care regulatory body after failing to meet requirements.
It gives the home just two weeks to meet requirements regarding the administration of medication and six weeks to meet other requirements or the Care Commission will move to cancel the Dundee home’s registration.
The neurodisability centre, owned by Four Seasons Health Care (Scotland) Ltd, has 45 residents.
A spokesman for the Care Commission said, “We have serious concerns about the quality of care being provided to residents at Linlathen Neurodisability Centre. At our most recent inspection of the service we identified a range of issues and concerns and as a result the service was awarded grades of unsatisfactory and weak. This is unacceptable in terms of the quality of care being provided to people.
“In recent months there have been a number of staffing and care issues at the service and these continue to cause us concern. The main issues include staffing levels and skills and also understanding the support needs of people living in the home.
“So far the service has not made the required progress expected to improve the standards of care provided to residents. Therefore, we have now issued an improvement notice which requires that a range of improvements are made within a specified timescale.
“If the service does not implement these improvements within these timescales, then we will consider what further action we might take, which may include making a proposal to cancel its registration.”
However, the improvement notice issued to Four Seasons states a clear intent to go for cancellation should the failure to meet requirements continue.
It states, “The Care Commission hereby gives you notice that unless there is a significant improvement in provision of the service, it intends to make a proposal to cancel your registration.”
A spokeswoman for the company issued the following statement: “Linlathen Neurodisability Centre has made progress on the action plan to address the requirements of the recent critical report by the Care Commission and there have been noticeable improvements in recent weeks.
“However, regrettably, some issues have not yet been satisfactorily resolved, so the commission has issued an improvement notice. This notice effectively requires the centre to remedy the outstanding issues.
“The centre continues to work closely with the Care Commission and local authority to implement the required improvements. Meanwhile we have agreed with the Care Commission and local authority to suspend new admissions.
“Linlathen has a good track record and has previously received favourable inspection reports, so we take the recent critical inspection report most seriously and we are working hard to restore the centre’s high quality standards and reputation.”