Working at St Mark's Care Home

Recruitment checks were incomplete with gaps in work history not verified before staff started, and staffing feels too low especially nights with just one nurse and one carer.

The registered manager did not operate effective and robust recruitment procedures to ensure they employed suitable staff. We found discrepancies with gathering information of full employment history and unexplained gaps... At nighttime, there is 1 nurse and 1 carer. I don’t know how they are surviving; it is horrible.”

Key training is missing for things like catheter care, feeding tubes, and epilepsy support, and inductions feel weak.

We reviewed the staff training matrix and found there was a lack of evidence of specific training and competency completed for specific topics including catheter care, administration of rectal diazepam and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG)... Some staff members told us they did not feel the induction was robust.”

Safety risks like poor medicines handling, covert meds without proper checks, and unmanaged dangers such as epilepsy or fire hazards from creams are not handled well.

Medicines were not always managed safely... There were 4 people receiving medicines covertly... no personalised care plans... High risk conditions were not always captured in people’s care plans... risks relating to paraffin-based creams were monitored and managed effectively.”