Dirty care home warned by CQC

Staff at Smallcombe House left a used incontinence pad under a resident’s bed all day, failed to clean stains on equipment and did not protect against infection when washing people’s clothes, a CQC inspector found.

The care home accommodates 32 elderly people and is managed by the Salvation Army Social Works Trust.

The inspector’s report, published last month, said: ‘There were a range of areas across the home where appropriate cleaning did not take place.’

The CQC inspector saw a ‘contaminated, used, continence odorous pad’ left under a resident’s bed. A mobile commode chair had debris and staining on its chassis, and there was no procedure to direct staff on how contaminated laundry was to be safely managed, the report said.

The regulator served a warning notice against the care home to be met by the end of this month.

A spokesperson for the Salvation Army said: ‘As a church and charity, we would also like to apologise to our residents that this situation has happened. They remain our priority and we will return our home to the high standards they expect of us.’