St Martins Care Home Ltd

Ratings

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

St Martins Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 15 people aged 65 and over. We undertook an assessment of the service from 4 April 2024 to 8 April 2024. At the time of our assessment 15 people were using the service. As part of our assessment activity, we undertook on site visits on 4 and 8 April 2024. This assessment was prompted by information of concern raised by a whistle blower regarding the environment. We assessed 1 quality statement in the safe key question: Safe Environments and found areas of significant concern. The provider had failed to ensure the premises were safe and habitable and exposed people to significant risk of harm. We identified a breach of regulation. The scores for this area have been combined with scores based on the key question ratings from the last inspection.

People's experience of this service

People did not raise any concerns with us about their care and treatment from care staff. People shared their views about the poor environmental conditions they lived in. People did not have access to safe and consistent hot water and central heating for 10 days. People were at risk of scalding due to staff having to carry kettles of boiled water, while some people were at risk of scalding due to the water in their room being too hot. While other people and staff did not have access to consistently safe hot water in their bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry and kitchen areas. In addition to this, there was only one showering facility which did not provide consistent safe water temperatures. Where alternative portable electric blower heaters were used, this meant areas became too hot. One person told us, “I did not sleep well last night, my bedroom was too hot.” There were malodours in one person’s bedroom, which meant it was unhabitable and alternative accommodation had to be sourced for the person. Fire safety concerns were also identified at this assessment. We contacted the fire service who also visited the service. This meant all doors needed to be kept closed, as there was limited assurance they would close in the event of a fire. We saw people become visibly distressed, as their freedom to walk around the home was restricted, as they could not easily open doors, with mobility walking aids.