Yorkshire care home in special measures after concerns are raised at five successive inspections

Holly Park Care Home, which provides care for 26 people with dementia and other conditions, was rated as ‘‘requires improvement’’ after four consecutive inspections, which were carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between 2016 and 2019.

And after the latest inspection in May, the home in Bradford was rated inadequate and special measures were imposed.

In a report, inspectors said that medicines at the care home were “not always safely managed” and they raised concerns about poor infection control practices.

The inspectors also said clinical staff were not receiving the right support, while some of the elderly residents were not receiving person-centred care and case records were not always accurate or complete.

“At this inspection not enough improvement had been made and the provider was still in breach of regulations. The service had deteriorated to inadequate,” the report states.

“The overall rating for this service is inadequate and the service is therefore in special measures.

“This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within six months to check for significant improvements.

“If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures.

The report also states the home “has failed to achieve a good rating and has a history of breaching regulations” since it was registered with the CQC in January 2011.

Park Homes UK Ltd, which runs the care home in Bradford, now has 12 months to make the required improvements.

A company spokesman said: “Holly Park has been providing a much-needed service over the last 20 years to the local area and over this period has helped thousands of elderly people.

“Over the pandemic period the hard work done by the staff at the home and the support provided to the local residents has been phenomenal.

“Unfortunately the home, whilst focusing on direct care delivery – has not managed to ensure that the paperwork to demonstrate this care has been always updated.”

He added: “The home is working actively with all the relevant stakeholders and is confident it will meet all requirements in the very near future.”