Sefton care home put in special measures after multiple failings found

A home has been placed in special measures after the care watchdog found a catalogue of failings including Covid safety issues and several fire hazards.

Saint Jude Care Home in Blundellsands, Sefton, had a "lack of leadership" and no medicine policy in place, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

It also said the home had not improved since a previous inspection in January.

The facility's director said the report was "unfair" and added the rating would be "catastrophic" for the home.

The home, which houses up to 22 people including some with dementia, was given an inadequate rating by inspectors.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said during the inspection in October, inspectors had "significant concerns with health and safety" and said vulnerable residents were at risk of harm.

The CQC report, published on Friday, said medicines were not always safely managed and there was no appropriate medicine policy in place.

The inspection found that residents were "not always admitted to the home safely" in terms of "current Covid guidance", multiple fire doors did not close and there were no fire evacuation drills.

Problems with care plans, recruitment and background checks on staff were also highlighted.

The home was rated as "requires improvement" at its last inspection in January 2021.

The home's director Gregory McVeigh said he was "utterly devastated" by the report, which he said "did not reflect the caring nature of our home which has been run by my family for 36 years".

"The failings relate almost exclusively to poor paperwork which came about as a result of a previous manager walking out of the job," he said.

He added that the home had "since found a fantastic manager and the failings found have been rectified".

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