A woman found guilty of operating a drug rehabilitation facility illegally is the director of a separate service that is in special measures.
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 CQC 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.
READ MORE: Woman who 'wanted to help' people ran illegal rehab centre
We Can Recover is a Community Interest Company located in Anfield. The service 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 with all clients paying 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 which Price was the director of called We Do Recover, which was located in Kremlin Drive in Liverpool.
Regarding the inspection of the We Can Recover service, the CQC said: "At the November 2022 inspection 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.
"Staff were not trained in essential skills to recognise and respond to people’s health deteriorating due to alcohol withdrawal and had not received other mandatory training."
Three of the four recruited nurses had no previous substance misuse experience, including the newly appointed clinical lead.
The service was re-inspected in January and February of this year, with its suspension extended a total of three times before being lifted in March.
However, We Can Recover remains in special measures and continues to be rated as an inadequate service following the most recent inspections. The CQC said enough improvement had not been made.
In its latest report, the CQC said it rated We Can Recover as inadequate because clinic rooms were not fully equipped and staff did not check and maintain equipment in line with manufacturer guidance. There was no emergency equipment or emergency medicines available.
The service was also found to not have enough experienced and accessible nursing and medical staff to deliver high quality, safe care.
The service had contracted a GP prescriber, based in Birmingham, but it was not clear what their role involved other than remote prescribing. The report added: "Three of the four recruited nurses had no previous substance misuse experience, including the newly appointed clinical lead. Arrangements to cover gaps in staffing were not formalised and there was not a clear clinical escalation route for queries out of hours."
Price is yet to be sentenced for the guilty verdict related to the We Do Recover service.
Mark Steel is now the operations manager at We Can Recover and said the service is starting to show signs of improvements.
He told the ECHO: "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."
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