Fife care home staffing levels showed ‘lack of understanding of basic care needs’

Officials from the Care Inspectorate visited Earlsferry Home in Elie on October 5.

Run by Earlsferry House Care Ltd, it is home to 26 elderly people.

Inspectors, who presented their report in a fortnightly update to the Scottish parliament, said staffing levels “were not sufficient to enable people to remain active, stimulated or have access to the outdoors. “

They said this “also impacted on those remaining in their rooms, those using communal areas and on mealtime experiences.”

Inspectors also said staffing numbers “demonstrated a lack of understanding of the basic care needs of people and added: “There was no assessment of dependency. “

They said records of enhanced cleaning were not kept and there was a lack of managerial oversight.

There were also not enough clinical waste bins throughout the home.

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The report noted: “The service had adequate supplies of PPE. Staff received training about COVID-19 and infection prevention and control and were using PPE appropriately.

“Some staff had not yet completed the required updates to training”

They have informed Fife Health and Social Care Partnership of their concerns, and it has agreed to provide support to the home.

The Care Inspectorate will make a further visit to monitor progress.

Earlsferry was one of several homes across Fife included in the latest update to the Scottish Government.

Inspectors also visited two care homes in Glenrothes and one in Cupar. The reports are available to view online.

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/139-inspection-reports-local-authority/reports-to-scottish-parliament-on-care-inspectorate-inspections

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Thank you for reading this story on our website. In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, we are asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspapers - the Fife Free Press, Fife Herald, St Andrews Citizen and East Fife Mail.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper. Thank you.