A FAILING care provider which runs home visits for vulnerable and elderly people in Edinburgh has been ordered to make urgent improvements after inspectors raised concerns over staff training and medication handling.
Homecare Support, a private social care firm whose main client is Edinburgh City Council, must make improvements by the end of March or it could face a legal bid by the Care Inspectorate to shut it down.
The watchdog has issued a formal Improvement Notice against the firm following a recent unannounced visit by inspectors. The inspection report is not yet available, but the Care Inspectorate said visit times, medication and staff training required "urgent improvement" by March 31.
It said home visits must be "carried out as scheduled and for the duration of time which has been agreed" and that staff members administering medication must "accurately record" what was given and when.
It added: "Homecare Support must ensure they have a system for looking at mistakes which helps to reduce the number of mistakes made."
It comes after a previous inspection report in December 2015 rated the service as "weak". At the time, inspectors said the service had undergone a "rapid expansion" over the previous year which had had "a significant detrimental impact on the quality of service being provided to clients".
Its previous general manager had also retired, replaced by an interim manager, and it was battling a "high staff turnover".
A spokesman for the Care Inspectorate said: "We will check on the progress made following this Improvement Notice and if we are not satisfied that the matters raised are addressed urgently we will not hesitate to take further action."
Dan Masters, director of Homecare Support, said: "Homecare Support acknowledges that there have been failings in the quality of its service in Edinburgh over recent months, and we are, and have been working in partnership with Edinburgh City Council to bring about the needed improvements.
"We have put in place an action plan to resolve the issues highlighted by the Care Inspectorate, and our staff are working extremely hard putting it into effect. We are committed to getting the service right, and supporting our customers in the right way."
Rob McCulloch Graham, Chief Officer, Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, said: "We agree with the Care Inspectorate’s decision to issue an 'Improvement Notice' to Homecare Support and we will continue to support both the Care Inspectorate and Homecare Support, who have one of eight contracts to provide care for a proportion of elderly residents in Edinburgh.”
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