AVANDALE Lodge Nursing Home ‘requires improvement’ according to a recent inspection by the care quality commission.

The service received the rating for leadership, how responsive the service is, how caring the service is, effectiveness of the service and it was rated ‘inadequate’ for safety.

The inspector said: “A relative of one person who needs the support of two staff to transfer told us that their loved one often had to wait for two members of staff to be available to support them to go to bed.

“An agency staff member who provided one to one support to a person that required two staff to support them to transfer also told us that they had to wait a long time for staff to respond to their requests for assistance.

“Staff confirmed this and explained there were 31 people at the service that required two members of staff to assist them to transfer and although some people were nursed in bed they still needed supporting with personal care and it took a long time to get around everybody.”

“The provider had not always ensured that agency staff were provided with sufficient information about the service and people's care needs before they started work.

“Agency staff deployed to provide one to one support to three people had not completed an induction to the service or been introduced to people and shown their care plan prior to starting work.”

There are positives regarding the management of the nursing home but this aspect of the home also needs to improve

The inspector said: “The provider and registered manager worked well with health and social care professionals such as the falls team, occupational therapists and social workers in order to achieve the best outcome for people.

“However we did not see the provider had taken any action to meet the recommendations made by Healthwatch

“Management were approachable. We observed staff coming to the various offices to speak with management about a range of issues during the day and discuss people's care.

“The registered manager was supported by two deputy managers and an administration assistant. Some staff told us morale had been low over recent months but was improving.”

A spokeman for HC One Limited said: “The health and well-being of all our Residents is of the upmost importance and we take the feedback from our inspectors extremely seriously.

“We have had a very successful staff recruitment campaign at the home and have been working very closely with the CQC and the local authority and made a number of changes.

“We have made immediate progress at the home and very much look forward to welcoming the CQC back in the near future to see the ongoing improvements that have been made.”