Harts House Nursing Home in Woodford Green was ordered to improve

A ‘requires improvement’ score was given to Bupa-run Harts House Nursing Home, in Harts Grove, Woodford Green.

The home was found to be in breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Regulations 2014 due to forgetting to check the temperature of food and medicine.

The inspection report said: “On our visit we found shortfalls in record keeping relating to reviewing and updating care plans.

“For example one care plan read that a person was self-medicating.

“However, in the care plan evaluation we saw that the person had not been able to self-medicate since February 2014.

“This showed that care plans did not always reflect the current needs of people who used the service.

“We also found several gaps in recording the medicine fridge temperature checks and two gaps in recording food temperature probing results.

“We informed the chef and the interim manager of our findings and the chef acknowledged that they had forgotten to record the food temperature probing and said they would be more vigilant about recording temperatures soon after checking.”

Staff also said they had significant concerns working at the home.

The report continues: “Concerns from staff included unresolved pay issues, lack of staff and resident meetings.

“Staff said they felt demotivated and unacknowledged.”

On the other hand the report praised the work of staff, stating that the residents at the home are happy and had built positive relationships with staff.

They said that communication with staff was very good and there were no concerns about their care.

One relative said: “We can have conversations with staff and the manager about our mothers care and do feel that we get good information.”

A resident of the home said: “The care staff stay on the same floor, which makes it easier as they know me by now and how much I love my tea.”

Bupa has been contacted for comment.