Linford Park Nursing Home
Linford Park Nursing Home is in danger of closure after a raid last week by police reports the Telegraph. The article states that
“The operation was intelligence led and targeted immigration offenders working illegally at the home,” said a UK Border agency spokesman.
He said 13 workers were found to be illegal immigrants. Two were released on bail while the rest were in custody last night.
According to the local paper, the Daily Echo, during the raid concerns were raised about the quality of care and three members of staff were charged with abuse and neglect. Horrific stuff of course.
Staff were replaced by those drafted in by the local authority and some residents were moved. Of course, there are (quite rightly) outraged relatives who object to their family members being pushed and pulled into any available placement.
Although all I was thinking is ‘would they have been so quick to act if there were no immigration issues and all the issues were purely about quality of patient care?’.
I doubt it. And that is the sadness of the system of monitoring of residential and nursing care.
The systems to check and monitor care homes is woefully inadequate and getting worse. CQC is currently bound up in re-registering services and a friend of mine who works as an inspector told me in a conversation that they are being focused 100000% on re-registering rather than actually tackling issues that might come up in care homes on a day-to-day basis.
Calling for more staff in any government agency in these cut-driven days is foolhardy at best and idiotic at worst but if there is any agency that needs it – it is the ground work of the inspectors who can go on at the drop of a hat and without announcement check the quality of care which is being given to those who are often not empowered to speak out.
Posted on August 3, 2010, in elderly, health, mental health, old age, older people, personal, social care, social issues, social work, work and tagged Elderly care, hampshire, immigration, linford park, long term care. cqc, residential care, uk. Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.
Yes I got that impression too. The only reason that the neglect was picked up was because of the immigration raid (so props to the immigration officers who really went above and beyond their bounds there to notice and report.)
The whole thing brings into question the policy of reducing LA res. care provision in favour of the private sector. Caught between the profit motive and the pressure from LAs to squeeze costs (below inflation increases in Maximum Funding Levels) in what is a labour intensive business has led to big issues with standards unsurprisingly falling. Add to that your point about the inadequacy of the regulatory framework and it all makes for a serious problem.
Thanks for the comments –
Spinks – good point
Neil – that is exactly the problem. The difficulty is that as long as the ‘answers’ cost money, they won’t be solved. But this is not just a matter of the current cuts climate – these issues have been around for the past decade through the ‘good’ years as well. That’s the pity.
Some years ago when my mother-in-law was in a nursing home a lot of the staff were migrants, mostly from Africa and I guess mostly ‘illegals’. We used to visit fortnightly at least and on one visit all the apparently migrant staff had disapeared. Trouble was they were the most gentle and patient of the carers so, in their absence the standard of care deteriorated.
I can’t say that surprises me..
My mother was one of the dementia patients moved so unthinkingly from Linford Park by social services. We have found the Linford Park care to be sensitive, affectionate and of a first rate standard. The raid was performed with very little care for the well-being of the patients. The care provided by social service whilst the raid was being performed was sub-standard. Some dementia patients were moved without the knowledge of their families. It’s an outrage.
Hane – thank you very much for your input as I had no personal knowledge of this situation other than what I read in the news. It sounds as though the issues that were dealt with were all done at the convenience of everyone other than the people who should be being cared for and while it’s heartening to hear that the quality of care was good, that makes what happened even worse.
I hope you are taking forward a complaint to the local authority.