BANES Council 'extremely sorry' for inadequate care home

A senor councillor apologised after a care home, where someone was left sitting in urine overnight, was branded inadequate by inspectors.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) took over residential care home Charlton House in Keynsham in 2020.

However, a visit by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in November found the quality of care had deteriorated.

Councillor Alison Born said: "We are extremely sorry that we have let people down."

Other findings in a CQC report on the home included an "unexplained bruise" to a person's chest and staff not calling for medical assistance for seven hours after one person had suffered a stroke.

The care home, which was previously run by Sirona, was handed to the council after the company could no longer run it.

Ms Born, the council's cabinet member for adult services, apologised to a scrutiny panel on Tuesday, saying the local authority had not provided the "consistently high quality of care" that "residents and their families expect and deserve".

Conservative councillor and chair of the council's children, adults, health, and wellbeing scrutiny panel, Vic Pritchard, said press reports of the situation at the care home had been "abhorrent, and amounts in my mind to torture".

Ms Born said the council was "working hard to improve the service provided".

She said a national shortage of care sector staff meant the care home was reliant on agency staff and was unable to cover all shifts,a the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

Suzanne Westhead, the council's director of adult services said the council has made improvements, including bringing in a senior nurse from the RUH and a new registered manager.

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