Care home staff furious after health watchdog website error sees home wrongly branded '˜inadequate'

Managers at Deneside Court, in Fellgate, Jarrow, were left fielding calls and defending their work after an out-of-date inspection report was published in error on the Care Quality Commission website.

A subsequent inspection report - which saw the home’s rating upgraded to “requiring improvement” after a number of issues were addressed - disappeared from the watchdog’s site.

Officials at the CQC confirmed there had been a “technical issue” over the publication of the reports and that the current rating for the home is “requiring improvement.”

Amanda Knight, head of therapy for Careline Lifestyles which runs the home, said: “Yesterday, we were alerted to the fact that CQC had re-published an out-of-date inspection report on their website which rated Deneside Court as ‘inadequate’ and detailed special measures that were in place for the home.

“This is an old report and the home has been inspected twice since this report was originally written. Deneside Court is not in special measures or rated as inadequate – this is misinformation on the part of CQC.

“We accept that this is a genuine technical issue with CQC’s website but the impact of this error has been devastating for us.”

She added: “We have spent the last 24 hours managing the fallout with phone calls from concerned social workers, family members and prospective users of the service.

“The staff at the home, who have poured their hearts and souls into driving through improvements over the last two years, have been understandably upset.

“CQC do great work and sometimes mistakes happen but every hour that passes with CQC continuing to display out of date information does real damage to the great reputation we have re-established at Deneside Court.”

The home provides residential and nursing care support to adults with brain injuries, mental health needs, neurological, learning or physical disabilities.

It also has a spa-hydrotherapy pool, sensory rooms, gym equipment and other facilities to enable people to develop their daily living skills.

Ros Sanderson, head of adult social care inspection at the CQC, said: “Deneside Court Care Home in Jarrow was rated as Requires Improvement in a report published on the CQC website on 6 June 2017.

“Previously the home had been rated as Inadequate and as part of our regulatory duties, we are required to publish enforcement action we have taken against a provider.

“We are not always able to publish details of enforcement action at the time we first publish inspection reports, due to legal restrictions placed upon us until this action has concluded. We republish these existing reports with additional information detailing the enforcement action when we are able to.

“In this case, publishing the enforcement action we took against Deneside Court Care Home from a previous inspection, temporarily replaced the most recent report.

“The provider was made aware in advance that this would happen, and understood this would only be the case for a matter of days.”

The latest report showing Deneside Court Care Home as Requires Improvement is now on the website and can be viewed at www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-512908458.