WIREDGOV

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken legal action to protect the safety of residents of a care home following serious concerns about people’s welfare.

Sea View Lodge in Herne Bay was a care home owned by partners (Sea View Lodge) Mr Shahid Sheikh and Mrs Nelofa Sheikh.   

CQC made an urgent application to Canterbury Magistrates’ Court on 8 June to cancel the registration of Sea View Lodge with immediate effect. The court granted the order for cancellation, although Mr Sheikh subsequently appealed. Following the withdrawal of Mr Sheikh’s appeal on the 27 July 2011, the provider’s registration now remains cancelled and the owners can no longer offer care services at Sea View Lodge.

Following concerns raised by staff whistleblowers, CQC gathered evidence that demonstrated people experienced poor standards of care which amounted to neglect, that there was a failure to manage long term health conditions, low staff numbers and people were cared for by staff who did not have the training, knowledge and skills to meet the people’s care needs.

CQC has referred safeguarding allegations to the police.

CQC has worked closely with other agencies responsible for monitoring care, particularly Kent County Council (KCC), which funds many people’s care and has a responsibility to investigate safeguarding concerns. KCC found alternative placement for the remaining eight people who were living at the home.  

Roxy Boyce, Regional Director for CQC in the South East, said: “We acted quickly to protect the safety and welfare of people at Sea View Lodge as soon as staff came forward with their concerns.

“All services must meet essential standards of care and we will take action where services are failing people.

“Closing a care home is never a decision taken lightly. These are places where people live and which they consider as their homes. But the only way to properly protect residents at Sea View Lodge was to close the home immediately, and move residents to other locations where care is of a better standard.”

For further information please contact CQC press office on 0207 448 9239. Out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to Editor

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England. Our aim is to make sure that better care is provided for everyone, whether it is in hospital, in care homes, in people’s own homes, or anywhere else that care is provided. We also seek to protect the interests of people whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act. We promote the rights and interests of people who use services and we have a wide range of enforcement powers to take action on their behalf if services are unacceptably poor.

Under a new regulatory system introduced by government, the NHS, independent healthcare and adult social care must meet a single set of essential standards of quality and safety for the first time. We register health and adult social care services if they meet essential standards, we monitor them to make sure that they continue to do so and we respond quickly if there are concerns that standards are not being maintained.  We do this by closely monitoring a wide range of information about the quality and safety of services, including the views of people who use services, and through assessment and inspection The feedback from people who use services is a vital part of our dynamic system of regulation which places the views, experiences, health and wellbeing of people who use services at its centre.