Mansfield care home in special measures after inspectors smelled urine in corridors

Maun View Care Home, which accommodates up to 77 residents, was inspected earlier this year, and the results were published by health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The home was deemed "not safe" and placed in special measures following an unannounced visit from health inspectors.

Inspectors from the CQC said they smelt urine in the hallway of the home, which they believed to be coming from the floor.

Maun View, on Chesterfield Road South, has now closed its nursing unit and is focusing solely on residential care.

Insufficient staffing numbers, poor incident reporting and a 'strong smell of urine' were all factors in the home being deemed 'inadequate'.

Details in the public report published on October 5 said: "We saw examples where people had to wait a considerable length of time to have their needs met. One person told us, "It can be up to half an hour, it's the same at night time.'' A relative told us "I asked at a relatives' meeting if staffing had reduced as people were beginning to look scruffy. I was told that staffing had increased.'"

"Peoples prescribed medicines were not ordered, stored, administered, disposed of and managed consistently. Best practise guidance and the provider's medicines policy and procedure were not followed.

"One person was prescribed medicine for seizures. This had not been ordered resulting in the person not receiving it for three days. The medicine information stated that if the medicine is stopped abruptly, it could cause a stroke.

"One nurse could not find a single use lancet for a person who had diabetes. Lancets are used to prick the skin to take a small sample of blood. The nurse used their own lancet and sterilised it. This posed a risk of cross contamination. After our visit the provider told us that the nurse had been dismissed.

"Our third visit to the home was during the heatwave, temperatures were more than 35 degrees. This had been predicted and weather warnings issued. However, most people had no fans placed in their rooms. People who were at risk of dehydration were not having their fluid intake monitored. We found that one person who was on a fluid chart had a very low intake and dehydrated."

However, the report did state that "robust recruitment processes were followed to ensure that people were protected from unsuitable staff. This included checks on staff employment history, DBS and identity.

The rest of the home was found to be "generally clean and tidy", and inspectors praised the frequent changing of aprons and gloves.

The report added: "We saw that there was a complaints procedure and that complaints had been dealt with in a timely manner."

The CQC has now placed the care home in special measures and will return within six months to see if improvement have been made.

A spokesman for Maun View Care Home said: “The recent CQC report was reflective of the need for high agency use in respect of registered nurses due to a national shortage of nursing staff.

"As an organisation the difficult decision was made by us to close the nursing unit at our home and continue with residential care only.

"As such the reliance on agency staff has now been managed out of the service and the quality of care improved through a robust action plan.

"A new experienced manager has been appointed for the service and the whole team continue to work incredibly hard to return to the high standards we expect and to prepare for a revisit to see the improvements recognised.

"We are pleased to hear of positive feedback from those who live at Maun View and have taken the opportunity to complete a significant refurbishment within the service.

"We look forward to seeing the service rated after our next inspection and will continue to monitor all aspects very closely going forward.”