Llanyravon Court Nursing Home stripped of its registration

Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) issued a notice to de – register the home, run by provider Golden Care, on November 14, 2022 - residents’ families were notified today.

The home was ordered to take action to improve issues around cleanliness, kitchen hygiene, and staffing levels, as well as medication management, and governance systems and processes, by October 31 – CIW concluded that not enough progress has been made.

A woman whose mother is a resident in the home said the providers have massively failed every resident and their families.

The Argus has previously reported on numerous over the care home on Llanfrachfa Way – one case was Patricia Parfitt who broke both her legs trying to reach the toilet buzzer, she died 16 days later.

Patricia Parfitt in hospital. Picture: Kathryn Rimmer (Image: Kathryn Rimmer)

Patricia Parfitt in hospital. Picture: Kathryn Rimmer

A Torfaen council spokesperson said: “On 14th November 2022 Care Inspectorate Wales issued a notice to de-register Llanyravon Court Nursing Home.

“Under this notice the provider has 28 days to appeal.

“Since then, the Local Authority and Health Board have been working closely with the provider, CIW, residents and residents’ families to ensure the needs of residents continue to be met during and after this time.”

The de- registration restriction will stay in place until an appeal is lodged.

Outside the Cwmbran care home. Picture: Street View (Image: Street View)

Outside the Cwmbran care home. Picture: Street View

In a letter to the residents’ families the care home said: ‘Llanyravon court has the option to appeal the decision to de register and at this moment in time Llaynravon court has decided not to.’

A spokesperson for CIW said: “We are aware of serious concerns about the standards of care at Llanyrafon Court.

“We inspected the service on 31 October and the inspection report is currently going through our reporting process.

“We are unable to comment further on individual services until this process is completed.

As the regulator CIW has powers to cancel the registration of a service if we find people receiving poor quality care because the provider is not meeting its legal responsibilities.

“Where we take this action, the provider has 28 days in which to lodge an appeal with the Care Standards tribunal body. Until the appeal is heard, legally the service can continue to operate.

“In these situations, CIW works closely with the relevant local authority and health board who have responsibility for informing the people who live at the service, and their relatives, that this is happening.  

Key points from CIW’s inspection report:

The inspection report was broken down into the following sub – headings.

Well – being:

• People are not always protected from abuse and neglect.
• During the inspection we noted the standard of cleanliness was poor and there were health and safety hazards.
• Overall, the arrangements the Responsible Individual (RI) has in place to oversee the service are not robust enough to always protect people from neglect.

Care and support:

• Medication is not always dealt with in the safest way.
• We noted medication had not always been administered as prescribed.
• They did not give staff clear instruction on how to communicate effectively with them.
• In one instance, we observed a person had not eaten their breakfast.

Environment:

• We observed the environment was not always as safe as it could be.
• We saw rooms which should be locked were unlocked, damaged wires, equipment not stored correctly, and televisions not secured on walls or units.
• We noted risks of cross contamination because of poor hygiene and cleanliness standards.
• Relatives told us, and we noted, the home has a food hygiene rating of one which means major improvements are required.

Leadership and management:

• Safe staffing arrangements to meet the care and support needs of individuals are not in place. For example, there is a high reliance on agency nurses who are not sufficiently familiar with people and with the systems and processes in place.
• There are not sufficient domestic staff deployed to ensure the required hygiene standards are always maintained.

The report recognises throughout that staff are caring and attentive.

A woman who wishes to stay anonymous to protect her mother’s identity said: “I found my mother sat in her own excrement; her room was filthy.

“A couple of weeks ago she lost her toothbrush and they had been encouraging her to brush her teeth with her finger.

“Once she had a rash on her face – her face was so swollen it looked like she had been beaten up, she couldn’t open her eyes.

“The standard of care is appalling, it is horrendous.

“They have massively failed every resident and every resident’s family; it is absolutely appalling.

“I am worried for my mother because she has deteriorated so much in Llanyravon and now she could end up everywhere.”

Previous concerns reported by The Argus over the Cwmbran care home:

• Patricia Parfitt fell while trying to reach the toilet buzzer and broke both her legs – she died 16 days later at The Royal Gwent Hospital.

Patricia's broken legs. Picture: Kathryn Rimmer (Image: Kathryn Rimmer)

Patricia's broken legs. Picture: Kathryn Rimmer

Ms Mapps died four months after joining the care home. She had multiple pressure sores, was often left bed bound and was given a tea cake for her dinner, her daughter claimed.

• Ian Johnson also raised his concerns over the treatment his father-in-law received. Mr Johnson saw a buzzer with a wait time of over an hour, and claimed the coffee area was filthy. He said: “They would turn up and give him a sandwich – if it wasn’t for the cancer he probably would have died of malnutrition.”
• One man who wished to stay annoynmous to protect his mother said she was left "frightened" by the standard of care. His mother had  open ulcerated sores on her legs and witnessed a bread crate filled with ready meals.

Ulcerated sores. Picture: Anonymous (Image: Anonymous)

Ulcerated sores. Picture: Anonymous

Llanyravon Court Nursing Home were contacted for comment.