A NEW report has found that vulnerable people treated by a personal care service in Oxford were not given the medicines they were supposed to take. 

Eleanor Nursing and Social Care, a service providing personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in Oxford and around the county, has received a critical report from the Care Quality Commission amid concerns about mismanagement of medicines and insufficient infection prevention.

The service at Oxford Business Park provides support to people living with dementia, people with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder as well as people with physical disabilities, sensory impairment and mental health problems.

It was rated as “requires improvement” — the second lowest rating possible — by the watchdog after an inspection prompted by concerns about people not having their care plans in place, missed and late visits and staff not using PPE properly.

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The report said: “Medicines were not always well managed. Protocols for medicines administered 'when required' contained confusing and contradictory information.

"Staff told us the protocols lacked clear guidance regarding administration of medicines. The lack of clear guidance led to one person being overmedicated.

“Infection prevention control measures were not always sufficiently embedded and required improvement.

“Staff told us that sometimes they were left without clear guidance on how to administer medicines safely.

“At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. The service was run by a manager who was in the process of registering with the Care Quality Commission.”

One member of staff told the inspector: “Sometimes there is no information regarding medication on site so new staff are struggling. Sometimes we find missed medicines, new carers do not know what to do, what to administer.”

Relatives of the people who use the service also told the inspector that staff did not always have the skills or knowledge on how to administer medicines safely.

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One relative said: "The carers do give medication, but I feel they are not firm enough with her. They give her medication, but they have missed that at times she hasn't taken it, they don't watch her and sometimes she leaves tablets on the plate and they fall off."

Staff members told the inspector that they had not been provided with covid tests since March.

A member of staff said: "They have not given us LFT tests since March, and they do not ask us to pass the test results to the office.”

The report also found that staff were aware about how to protect people's dignity when they offered personal care.

One person told the inspector: "My carer respects my dignity as when he is helping me to wash, he wraps me in a towel. He lets me wash myself, but he helps wash my feet. He makes me feel at ease."

A spokesman from Eleanor Nursing and Social Care said: "Eleanor Care welcome this feedback from the CQC, and agree that their impartial inspections are crucial to maintaining a high quality of care nationally.

"Since the inspection report, we have worked extremely closely with the Commissioning and Quality branches of Oxfordshire County Council to address all concerns raised in this report, and we are proud to feed back that they are satisfied with our progress, and fully support our journey of improvement.

"We have furthermore appointed senior management for direct oversight, an entirely new branch team and invested hugely in infrastructure and operative function.

"We have received some truly remarkable feedback from our service users and local professionals in recent weeks, and are not only confident but looking forward to our next CQC inspection to demonstrate these improvements.’’

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This story was written by Anna Colivicchi, she joined the team this year and covers health stories for the Oxfordshire papers. 

Get in touch with her by emailing: Anna.colivicchi@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @AnnaColivicchi