A recovering addict has spoken out about his time at a Liverpool rehabilitation centre that was put in special measures after a damning inspection.
We Can Recover, based in Belmont Drive in Anfield, had its licence to operate suspended after safety concerns were raised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) at an inspection in November.
While some improvements were found at follow up inspections earlier this year, the rating of the service remains inadequate, the lowest rating the CQC hands out. The watchdog said it took immediate enforcement action to remove the licence because of the safety concerns stemming from its last inspection of We Can Recover in November.
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A former resident has now spoken out about his time at the centre, which is registered to provide inpatient care and detoxification for up to 24 clients with non-opiate addictions such as alcohol or cocaine in a residential rehabilitation facility. The service is not funded through the NHS and clients pay fees for their treatment.
According to Companies House, one of the directors of We Can Recover is Fenella Price. In February Price was found guilty of operating a drug rehabilitation facility illegally after a five day trial at Liverpool Magistrates Court in February.
The guilty verdict relates to a different business that Price was the director of called We Do Recover, which was located in Kremlin Drive in Liverpool.
A spokesperson for We Can Recover says the centre is now under new management and is now making improvements.
But speaking about his time at We Can Recover, which continues to be rated as inadequate, the man - who asked not to be named but comes from the north east - said: "I'm a reformed addict, I've suffered with addiction for over 10 years, having patches of sobriety and I had just gone five months sober when I had a relapse on August 4. I was ten weeks into my relapse and my family had been searching on the internet for private rehab centres, my family sorted it all out, I was in no fit state, I was a complete mess. They said a place in Liverpool was willing to accept me and I went in in October last year."
The man said he ended up in hospital within 12 hours of being admitted at We Can Recover. He said his family had warned staff that he suffered from serious seizures when withdrawing from alcohol, adding: "My mum had stressed to them how bad my seizures were and was seeking assurances that they were equipped for this - I later found out she was a bit concerned because she wasn't getting much clarity from them."
The man said that once in the house he started to have severe withdrawals and claimed he did not get the medication he needed, which was Librium.
He said: "I was completely out of it. I then had a seizure and was admitted to hospital, the nurses didn't know where I had come from because they hadn't told anyone. They had no record of where I was staying."
In its November inspection, which saw We Can Recover's licence suspended, the CQC stated: "We were not assured that staff had the qualifications, competence, skills and experience to care for clients safely. Support workers, who were caring for people in alcohol withdrawal were not competent, skilled or experienced in either the assessment and monitoring of withdrawal symptoms or in responding to potentially very serious physical health side effects."
The man, whose family paid £6,500 for his short stay at the centre, added: "When I was telling them about my seizures, I don't believe they just weren't taking it seriously."
In a response to the claims made, current manager Mark Steel said he was not on site at the time of the resident's stay but has reviewed client information and incident reports from the time.
He said: "All the incident reports evidenced that the resident went into seizure after being issued medication. Naturally staff responded as they would in this situation by calling 999 and he was taken to hospital, where he went into seizure a second time under hospital care.
"Unfortunately during detox, although organisations use medication to manage the risk of seizure, in some cases it is unavoidable. This would appear to be the case, as seizure happened after medication had been dispensed, both in We Can Recover and Liverpool Royal Hospital."
He said that after he was discharged from hospital, the centre's bosses made the decision to take the resident back to hospital to detox.
Mr Steel said the centre is now managed by a 'completely different team', he added: "Obviously the organisation has had its failings but it was born out of a willingness to try and help people with addiction and we all feel very passionate about that.
"The CQC previously suspended the licence but since then we have brought in a new team and have worked in cohesion with the CQC who said they were happy for us to reopen. In order to reopen the service we were under increased scrutiny and the CQC were happy that people were not at risk."
He added: "We have now brought together a multi-disciplined people and we believe things are heading in the right direction."
Another former resident, who stayed at the centre in 2021, contacted the ECHO to say she had a positive experience at We Can Recover. The woman, who lives in the south of the country, said: "I was completely shocked to read the negative stories about We Can Recover, because my experiences were life-changing there.
The recovering addict added: "Every single day that I was there I was taken care of by all the staff. I made friends for life. They have helped a lot of people."
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