A CARE home where four deaths are being investigated by police will be closed next month if more improvements are not made, a watchdog said.
The Care Inspectorate - the independent body that scrutinises such services in Scotland - said there had been some improvement at the Pentland Hill Care Home in Edinburgh, but not enough.
A spokesman for the watchdog said its officers still had "significant concerns" although issues of staff training and rota management had been addressed and there was what was described as a genuine willingness now to bring the home up to acceptable standards.
The inspectorate had earlier found serious failings when it visited the home unannounced, and these were admitted by home operator Bupa.
The Care Inspectorate had given the home an initial deadline of last month to improve conditions but there will now be a review at the end of November at which point the home could close.
The improvements that have been set included a system to ensure medication was administered as prescribed, a requirement for staff to set up a different system of food, fluid and nutritional care, and the development of workers' training.
A Care Inspectorate spokesman said yesterday: "The block on new admissions remains. We require this care home to make further, specific improvements by the end of November, at which point we will reassess its licence to operate. The Improvement Notice remains in force.
"We are working closely with the council and NHS to safeguard residents.
Richard Jackson, director of operations for Bupa Care Homes said it would do what was necessary to reach the standards.
A source in the sector said that the Care Inspectorate will only close homes as a last resort as doing so can have a devastating impact on residents.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article