Northampton nursing home that did not give residents enough to eat and dressed people in the '˜wrong clothes' is closing

Staff at Kingsley Nursing Home in Kingsley Road, have already begun the process of moving residents out, just a week after the Care Quality Commission rated the facility as “inadequate” in all areas.

Among the failings the watchdog found were that the provider, Hollyberry Care Limited, was unaware one elderly resident had received “too much of one medicine on two separate occasions within the previous two weeks.”

The report went on to say residents “did not have enough to eat and drink to maintain their body weight, health or well-being.

“We had serious concerns about the oversight of people’s nutritional care,” it added. “Which led to most people losing weight and becoming dehydrated.”

While there was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection on September 16, they have been suspended pending an investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

And though the home is to close, a statement from Hollyberry Care Limited suggests it is merely undergoing a renovation and will reopen “shortly.”

A spokesman said: “We have made the difficult decision to cease providing nursing care at Kingsley Nursing Home.

“We are working closely with the local authority to find suitable alternative placements for our current nursing clients.

“This has been an extremely difficult decision, but ongoing difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified nurses, reliance on agency nursing staff and low fees, has made it difficult for us to a maintain the high quality of care that we aim to provide.

“We will be undertaking a refurbishment of the home and will re-open shortly to offer high quality residential care.”

It is understood the home will re-open in the new year, but when the Chron asked whether the same residents could move back in there, Hollyberry said it would not be expanding on its statement.

However, it is understood part of the reason the home is to shut is because the CQC blocked the home from registering new residents.

In another of its more scathing remarks, the watchdog said many more residents “spent long periods of time without any significant interaction” and were not “supported to live a fulfilled life.”

Another occasion tells of a time a resident with sepsis did not have their wound re-dressed for over a week.

Telling inspectors of their experience of life at the home, one said: “There’s not much going on here and the staff very rarely come and talk to me,” the resident said.

Prior to its inspection on September 7, the CQC said it had received a number of complaints about the home.

The watchdog report states: “Another relative told us prior to the inspection that their relative was repeatedly dressed in other people’s clothes.

“They told us, ‘I went to complain again and was told they did not have time to deal me’.”

The home is said to be working with residents to find them a new home, with the process set to take a month.