"Dirty" Sheffield nursing home which risked causing infection placed in special measures

A Sheffield care home described as “dirty”, “untidy and disorganised” after an inspection has been placed in special measures.

Norbury Court, on Devon Road, has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Residents had to stay in their night clothes during the day as no clean clothes were available, and have bed baths rather than showers due to a lack of towels, the report reads.

Alan Stephenson, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said: “All of this was because of poor laundry processes which saw dirty laundry pile up, and there not being any room for staff to clean, dry and sort washing. 

“This is totally unacceptable and people at Norbury Court deserve to be treated with much more dignity and be given access to the same facilities that other people are able to take for granted.

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“Additionally, we saw the home was dirty and needed a deep clean. Many areas were poorly maintained with dirty armchairs, storerooms were extremely untidy and disorganised and there was a strong, unpleasant smell in some parts of the home. All of these issues put people living here at risk of infection.”

In terms of being effective, caring and responsive, it ‘requires improvement’.

Overall, and for safety and leadership, the CQC issued an ‘inadequate’ rating.

Mr Stephenson added: “This lack of strong leadership was affecting people living at the home because there weren’t good enough processes in place to enable staff to provide safe, dignified care.

“We were pleased to see that people were able to visit their loved ones whenever they wanted. 

“However, people’s relatives told us they often had to wait outside for very long periods of time waiting to be let in, as staff weren’t around. We also didn’t see any action taken by Norbury to address this issue to stop it from happening again.”

The home, provided by Roseberry Care Centres (Yorkshire) Limited, will be kept under close review, and face further action if “rapid and widespread” improvements do not take place within six months.

A notice on its CQC page reads: “The service has been placed in special measures. People’s dignity at the service has not been upheld. The provider did not have effective governance in place.”

Norbury Court has been contacted for comment.