Glasgow care home set to be shut down after failing to remedy 'serious concerns'

The Care Inspectorate is looking to close down a care home in Glasgow after an inspection deemed it to have "serious and significant concerns" which were not addressed.
The Care Inspectorate has said it has "serious concerns" about Rowandale Nursing Home in Glasgow.The Care Inspectorate has said it has "serious concerns" about Rowandale Nursing Home in Glasgow.
The Care Inspectorate has said it has "serious concerns" about Rowandale Nursing Home in Glasgow.

After issuing a letter identifying its concerns after two inspections in the past two months, the inspection body said the problems at Rowndale Nursing Home in Pollokshields had not been remedied and it had submitted an application to the sheriff court seeking cancellation of the care home’s registration.

The Care Inspectorate said it had applied to the courts to seek a cancellation of the home’s registration. It added that this would allow “new care arrangements” to be put in place for residents.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The most recent inspection of the home, run from a converted church, was carried out earlier in August, at which point a “Letter of Serious Concern” was issued. The full details of that report have not been published and will not be public until the court hearing.

However, an inspection report published in July found that infection control was “weak”, after finding that staff were not wearing face masks appropriately and using the same gloves between various tasks, while hand sanitiser dispensers were not being refilled.

The report said the role of activities organiser at the home had been vacant for months and opportunities to participate in any planned or spontaneous activities were “very limited”, while food was not labelled “as expected” in a way that would allow it to be used in date order. CCTV had been installed in communal areas, without any consultation with residents or their families.

Read More
Scottish care worker told patient: 'You remind me of my mother and I hate my mot...

Meanwhile, inspectors found there was no documented evidence that required pre-employment checks had been undertaken when hiring new staff.

An interim hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court is expected to take place on Thursday.

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: “An inspection has identified serious and significant concerns about the quality of care experienced by residents at Rowandale Nursing Home in Glasgow. We understand this is a difficult and distressing time for residents, their loved ones and staff at the home. However, our first priority is always the health, safety and wellbeing of residents.”

She added: “The Care Inspectorate visited this home unannounced in July and August and identified significant concerns. We issued a Letter of Serious Concern requiring safe and effective management, leadership, and oversight of the care home and improved working practices and care of people in the home. Further inspection and monitoring identified that none of the required improvements from the Letter of Serious Concern or previous inspections have been met and we identified further serious concerns.

“Because of this, and because the improvements required have not been made, we have submitted an application to the sheriff court seeking cancellation of the care home’s registration. This could allow new care arrangements to be put in place for residents of the home.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The home was sold by previous owners Forth Care in September last year.

A spokeswoman for Rowandale Nursing Home suggested the facility may not remain open in any case.

She said: “Despite having new leadership management in place last year in September and their investment of time and money for the wellbeing of residents and staff, we were not able to sustain this care home.

“The care home residents will be missed and we are trying our best to relocate them to new care homes with the help of stakeholders and wish them all to have a safe departure.

“We will be cooperating with all the agencies in order to ensure the safety and care of the residents are looked after.

“The management tried their best along with the staff members to save this lovely care home.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.