A ‘BORING’ care home has been told to employ more staff and improve the way it is run.
Hyde Nursing Home, on Grange Road South in Gee Cross, has come under the ‘requires improvement’ bracket in a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
And inspectors were told some fairly brutal things about life at the facility – with many things going back to a lack of staff.
When they poke to people there, they replied: “I don’t know the management team.
“I would like to see more activities. I find it boring in here as there isn’t anything to do. If they employed more staff, they would be able to spend more time with the people who live here.

“I don’t know who is in charge I have mixed feelings about the home.”
Others commented: “The home always appears to be short staffed, I do get frustrated sometimes and I suppose the staff do their best.
“You can wait a long time for someone to come when you ring the bell.”
CQC inspectors also found the staffing situation caused concern, saying: “There were not sufficient staff to ensure people received the care and support they needed in a timely manner.”
They also found other worries, including: “People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.
“There was a lack of systems for auditing, assessing, monitoring and improving the quality and safety of the service.”
However, they also found good aspects to care being given as ‘staff understood their responsibility to safeguard people from abuse.’
They added: “People had their needs assessed before they started to live at the home. Staff knew people well, we observed they were caring and treated people with kindness.
“People were supported to eat and drink and maintain a balanced diet. The provider had recruited a new manager who had started at the home two weeks before our inspection.
“Throughout the inspection we found the provider and managers of the service open and transparent.
“They took immediate action to rectify concerns where they could and were willing to work closely with other agencies to improve the service.”
Hyde Nursing Home, operated by Treetops Nursing Home Ltd, came under inspection after the CQC, ‘received concerns in relation to staffing, the management of medicines, health and safety and recruitment.’
As well as care ad staffing, other areas of concern were found in the inspection.
A fire risk assessment carried out in March 2021 had not been reviewed and the fire evacuation plan did not reflect current staffing or the needs of current people who used the service.
There was no evidence to support that regular internal health and safety checks were taking place, including fire safety, checks of hoists and slings, window restrictors, water temperature checks and flushing of infrequently used outlets or shower head cleaning.
Many wardrobes were not secured to walls, posing a risk of people being trapped if the wardrobe fell onto them.
Some doors that should have been locked when not in use, as the items posed a risk to people, were unlocked and the laundry was untidy, dirty bedding was piled next to the washing machine and staff could not access hand washing sink.
During its visit, 10 people living at the home and two relatives were spoken to, as well as 10 members of staff.
A range of records, including care records, records relating to medicines, staff recruitment, training and supervision, building maintenance, cleaning and equipment checks, accident and incidents, safeguarding logs and policies and procedures for infection control, were reviewed.
Also, a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and policies and procedures were examined.
The CQC highlighted steps Hyde Nursing Home had put in place after it contacted the fire service with some of its concerns.
Immediate action was taken during our inspection to rectify some of the issues found. and all maintenance and certification checks had been completed, with any required action taken.
A new fire risk assessment had been undertaken and a new evacuation plan was in place, and in-house fire checks were being undertaken.
Risks to people had been identified and new risk assessments and care plans had been developed for some people, with work ongoing.
And crucially, it said: “We found no evidence that people had been harmed. We found no evidence that people were not being supported correctly.”
On the claim life can be ‘boring,’ bosses told the CQC they are in the process of recruiting an activity coordinator as people had fed back during the inspection, they would like more activities.
And meetings for people and their families, as well as staff, were planned while a new manager had started to hold daily meetings for all departments to look at what needed to happen on each shift and if any action needed to be taken.
A questionnaire to people and their relatives to find out their opinions of the service and how it could be improved will also be sent out.