Care home staff training out of date, inquest told

A care home provider where a 29-year-old resident died has admitted some staff training was "slightly out-of-date", an inquest has heard.

Holly Goodchild collapsed and died on 29 March last year at Cygnet House near Great Yarmouth, a residential home for people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health needs.

Norfolk Coroners' Court was told the lapse in training at the home was due to "not having enough of our own staff".

Operational manager Michelle Smith, from Crystal Care which runs the home at Belton, said staff recruitment was an "absolute problem".

Ms Goodchild's medical cause of death was given as positional asphyxia, epilepsy and morbid obesity, and left ventricular hypertrophy.

The court previously heard Ms Goodchild had not been given epilepsy medication on the night she died.

Ms Smith, who supported Crystal Care's homes and managers with systems, processes, and compliance, told the court "there was some training that was slightly out of date due to not having enough of our own staff".

Asked about the error over the epilepsy medication, she said the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had told the home "we were over reporting our medication errors".

The company was only reporting medical errors to the NHS inspectorate if a GP or the NHS 111 phone service said the error was likely to cause harm, she said.

Senior coroner Jacqueline Lake also heard Ms Goodchild's mental capacity form was incorrectly filled out.

Asked if this reflected a weakness in the staff, Ms Smith said there were "sufficient numbers [of staff] but not always strength".

The court previously heard she did not immediately receive first aid because staff thought she was "attention seeking".

Ms Smith also told the court the initial response to Ms Goodchild's collapse "should have been to call 999".

Ms Lake asked whether the home has mobile phones.

Jennifer Grego, Crystal Care's co-director and registered provider, told her it did but added, "why they didn't use it, I'm unable to say".

All the home's residents have learning disabilities and some have additional diagnoses such as epilepsy or mental health conditions, she said.

But she told the court staff were not "recording [data relating to behaviours of clients] at the level they needed to record".

She added the company was "definitely addressing all the issues [raised in the inquest]".

The inquest is expected to conclude this week.

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