ACTION has been taken to arrest the slide in quality at a Wanborough nursing home, but inspectors want to see more done to meet national standards.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its latest report into Church Road’s Florence House on Tuesday (NOV 3) after an unannounced inspection on August 17.

The latest visit, made by two adult social care inspectors and two pharmacy inspectors, was a follow-up to inspections in May which found improvements were needed across the board.

In assessing six residents’ care records and all 26 residents’ medicine records, the inspectors were assessing two areas: the safety and effectiveness of care at Florence House.

“The service was not always safe,” the report said. “We found that action had been taken to improve safety of medicines, however medicines records were not always completed and we could not be sure people received their medicines as prescribed.”

It added: “The service was not always effective. We found that staff had good knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and their role in supporting people who lacked capacity.

“However care plans did not always contain clear information relating to people's capacity.”

The CQC accepted it could not upgrade the inadequate safety rating because all key lines of enquiry were not assessed, while effectiveness was not upgraded because improvements must last over a longer period of time.

A spokeswoman for Florence House said: “We and the CQC were happy with the improvements that had been made.

“There are still a couple of areas, particularly around the paperwork, which need to be addressed.

“We are working with the authorities, Swindon Borough Council and the CQC to iron out that documentation.

“The staff have all worked hard and the CQC made a note of that. There are still areas which need attention, but we are moving in the right direction.”

When the last report was published in July, the CQC said the nursing home was breaching five health and social care regulations, with special criticism targeted at the poor safety regime and medicine mismanagement.

At the time, residents had in fact praised officials at the home for the care they had received.