Concern over conditions in capital care home

Lothians MSP Miles Briggs has expressed concern over a failure to improve conditions at Braid Hills Nursing Centre.

The latest Care Inspectorate report reads:

Braid Hills Nursing Centre is registered to provide care to 95 older people and 24 adults with a physical disability. The provider is BUPA Care Homes (ANS) Limited.

We carried out an initial inspection of the service on 29 September and 1 October, with NHS Lothian. The findings were outlined in the report laid before Parliament on 14 October.

We completed a further visit on 12 November with NHS Lothian to follow up on the improvements required in relation to cleanliness, infection prevention and control, waste management, the use of PPE and staff knowledge. The findings were outlined in the report laid before Parliament on 25 November.

We determined that further progress was still required.

We visited the service again on 29 December. Improvements were not sufficient in respect of the standard of cleanliness, waste management, the use of PPE, staff practice and knowledge. Overall, the management oversight and quality assurance systems were ineffective.

We issued a letter of serious concern to the provider on 29 December which detailed immediate action the home must take.

We returned to the service on 2 January 2021. Although the service had made plans to address our concerns, progress was not sufficient to reassure us that people were being supported safely during the pandemic. We issued the service with an improvement notice on 4 January 2021.

We have informed Edinburgh health and social care partnership of our findings.

We will undertake a further visit to monitor the improvement notice.

This was a follow-up inspection. We did not change the service evaluations.

Lothians MSP Miles Briggs said: “This is extremely concerning that Braid Hills Nursing Centre has failed to make the necessary changes to make the care home safe.

“The care home has repeatedly been told to follow the necessary measures in respect to the standard of cleanliness, waste management, the use of PPE, staff practice and knowledge, but have refused to do so.

“Increased levels of Covid-19 in the community puts elderly care home residents at even greater risk and Braid Hills Nursing Centre’s license must be reviewed if they will not meet the necessary standards to keep residents safe.”