Priory Lodge care home in Colchester enters special measures

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) made an unannounced visit to Priory Lodge in October after it received concerns about management oversight and competence issues which could impact people’s care and support.

In a report published on Thursday, the watchdog confirmed the care provider, which provides personal care to people who require support with their mental health, has been deemed “inadequate” overall after the three-day inspection.

“A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks,” it said.

Care home - Priory Lodge (Image: Google)

The regulator said safety and leadership at the care home, in Priory Street, Colchester, received the bottom rating, while the remaining areas of the report received the lesser grading of “requires improvement”.

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The cleanliness of the care home, where one cleaner was working just three days a week, was criticised after the inspector saw “rolls of blue catering aprons, used by staff when dealing with food, stored in the sluice room where soiled linen and equipment was processed”.

“There was a build-up of scum in the washing machine powder dispenser enabling bacteria to develop,” the report continued.

Service users’ safety was also brought into question after the inspector discovered “some wardrobes were unstable and posed a risk of harm if they fell over” and that “items that may be used to self-harm had not been identified”.

Over the three days, two inspectors spoke to three people who used the service, the provider, the registered manager, and six staff members, and reviewed records relating to care, recruitment, training, and management.

Concerns for the care home’s staff were also raised following these conversations.

“Staff at the service had previously been assaulted by some people using the service,” the inspector wrote. “Staff were not being given the training that enabled them to meet the needs of [or] effectively safeguard people.”

The care home, where the inspector said there “was not a positive culture”, has not been given an overall rating of “good” by the CQC since 2016.

Priory Lodge was approached for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.