Improvements have been ordered at an Ayrshire care home after a laundry room was found to pose a ‘risk of infection’ to residents.
The Care Inspectorate highlighted the problem during a recent inspection of Shawburn Care Home Service, in Prestwick’s Monkton Road.
They said they were ‘not confident’ of the cleanliness of the laundry room and said it ‘would be difficult’ to keep it clean and ‘infection free’ in its current condition.
And they claimed that the care home is suffering from an “overall lack of investment.”
As a result, bosses at the care home have been given until January 27, 2023 to make a number of improvements to the care they provide.
Although the care home was graded as ‘adequate’ in three of the Care Inspectorate’s quality indicators, the scrutiny body said some ‘key areas’ needed to improve.
Shawburn is registered to provide a care service for a maximum of nine adults with learning disabilities. The provider is Hansel Alliance.
An extract from the inspection report zoned in on the laundry room issue and said: “Although we could be confident that staff knew how to wash contaminated laundry, we could not be confident in the cleanliness of the laundry area.
“The laundry area was not clean and in its current condition, would be difficult to keep it clean and infection free.
“It was also being used for storage.
“We found that this was the only area where staff could dispose of wastewater, further increasing risk of cross infection.”
Another area of concern was the kitchen, which the Care Inspectorate said needed ‘updating.’
The report states: “The kitchen was in need of refurbishment, the home had already purchased a kitchen, however, there have been delays in having this installed.
“Staff and people living in the home were having to prepare food in an area that wasn’t suitable.
“We found that, despite the home feeling homely, it was tired and in need of refurbishment. Décor was dated and radiators were rusted. There appeared to be an overall lack of investment in the home.”
In addition, the home has four bathrooms, all of which needed “modernisation,” according to the report.
Despite the issues the Care Inspectorate said the home had a “warm welcoming feeling,” people living there and staff had “good, positive relationships” and residents were encouraged to be as “independent as possible.”
The report adds: “Throughout our inspection, we were able to see warm, kind, and compassionate interactions between staff and people living in the home. People looked comfortable around staff, and we could see good support being provided.
“Staff were kind, compassionate and empathetic to people’s needs, giving them confidence in their care and support.”
Roddy Wright, operations director at Hansel said: “We are committed to maintaining safe, welcoming and homely environments for everyone we support and have been implementing a plan of improvements within our Shawburn shared living property over the last 12 months.
"There has been a number of delays due to circumstances out with our control which has slowed down progress.
"The people we support in Shawburn and their families are aware of the agreed plans for improvement and our commitment to ensuring every person has good experiences of the care and support we provide including the continuous improvement of their home environments.”
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