Rethink on care home criticism after council appeals

A SUBSTANDARD grade given to Lyndhurst care home Cranleigh Paddock has been withdrawn online after it was challenged by Hampshire County Council.

The authority-run home had been deemed ‘requires improvement’ by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) because they said it had not acted in accordance with recommendations made in 2015 with regard to a legionella risk assessment.

But Hampshire County Council queried the judgement and served the CQC with new evidence.

That has caused the national watchdog to re-evaluate whether the substandard rating should remain or change and may see the report rewritten.

The decision was welcomed by Cllr Liz Fairhurst, the county council’s cabinet member for adult social care and health.

“I am pleased to confirm that, following initial publication of the inspection findings, the commission has since advised that these will now be reviewed as a result of the provision of additional evidence of the action taken by the county council in relation to the safety of services at Cranleigh Paddock – and we understand the report is being removed from the CQC website,” she said.

“For those residents, their families and carers who may have seen this initial report, and who may have been concerned by its conclusions, I would like to reiterate the county council’s commitment to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of everyone in our care,” Cllr Fairhurst added.

Asked to comment, a spokeswoman for the CQC said: “A decision has not been made to change the rating of the service. It submitted factual accuracy and we agreed to remove the report from the website while we go through the factual accuracy process.”

Because of the review the CQC has uploaded a previous judgement from 2016, which rated the 32-bed facility as ‘good’, to its profile of the home.