Island Care Home Told It Must Improve Following Inspection

An Isle of Wight care home has been found in breach of six legal regulations and told it must improve by a watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Waxham House at 1 High Park Road in Ryde ‘requires improvement’ across five categories: overall, safe, effective, responsive and well-led, with another area – caring – deemed to be good.

Breached regulations related to person-centred care, consent to care and treatment, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, good governance, and safe and effective staffing.

Waxham House’s specialisms and services include caring for adults over 65 years, and those with dementia and physical disabilities.

A total of 20 people were living or staying on-site at the time of the assessment.

The home was sold at auction to first-time buyers Minal Patel and Mitenkumar Patel of Genix Care Ltd earlier this year.

At the time, Mr Patel said: “As we begin our journey into the care sector, we do so with excitement for what is to come.”

The CQC said the provider failed to effectively assess or manage environmental risks, including the risk of legionella, and areas of the service had exposed hot pipes and electric heaters in use with no protective covers.

Inspectors were told there were not always enough staff and according to the watchdog, the provider failed to undertake recruitment checks in line with regulatory requirements.

The CQC said: “The provider did not always ensure all potential risks to people were understood and managed.

“People’s records were not always up to date, complete or contemporaneous. Medicines were not always managed safely. The provider failed to operate effective checks of care quality and safety.

“We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to concerns found at this assessment in relation to person centred care, need for consent, safeguarding, and safe and effective staffing.”

The provider was however praised for always treating people with ‘kindness, empathy and compassion’.

Inspectors said staff interactions were ‘warm and genuine’, with feedback from people supporting its observations.

They also said the provider promoted people’s independence, so people ‘knew their rights’ and had ‘choice and control’ over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Waxham House has been contacted for comment.

Waxham House was brought to market after over two decades under husband and wife Sanjay and Sandhya Ramdany.