Under-fire Mansfield care home says sorry and promises improvements

Parkside Nursing Home at Forest Town was branded ‘Inadequate” and placed in ‘Special Measures’ after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in August found that the elderly residents were at serious risk of harm and abuse. See here.

However, the Monarch Healthcare Group, which runs the home, says it “accepts full responsibility” for the findings and stressed: “It is our absolute priority to bring Parkside back to the high standards of before”.

Jacki Perry, operations manager for Monarch, said: “It was purely down to staffing issues.

"Unfortunately, we had a number of staff leave for different reasons and so we had high use of agency staff.

"This coincided with a high influx of residents with complex needs that, in all honestly, we were not ready to cater for. Staff were not prepared adequately.

"We should have stopped it happening, and we were too late to respond.”

Through Jacki, Monarch issued this statement in response to the CQC report:

“We are saddened by the position in which we find ourselves. On behalf of all residents and their families, we offer our sincere apology.

"Due to staff shortages and subsequent recruitment difficulties, which many nursing homes are currently facing, we were heavily reliant on agency staff, who were inexperienced in how to look after our residents.

"At the time, the home was also without a registered manager. However, we now have a very experienced manager, who is working closely with our senior team, together with support from the local authority and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), to make the necessary improvements and hopefully rebuild trust in the service.

“We would like to express our gratitude to the team of carers who have remained committed to Parkside throughout this difficult time.

"We acknowledge their dedication to all residents, and give our assurance there was no intention from any carer, employed or agency, to cause distress. We are confident current residents are safe and receiving a good standard of care.”

Jacki added that the home still relied on agency workers for 50 per cent of its staff , but most had now been properly trained.

"Recruitment is still a problem, but we are slowly moving forward,” she said.

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