Care home for elderly played nursery rhymes on repeat

Inspectors visited a care home for older people to find it was playing loud nursery rhymes repeatedly for up to three hours.

Cressington Court in Liverpool was found to be inadequate by the watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which flagged concerns that "some activities... had a detrimental impact on people's mental wellbeing".

Some of the 52 people living at Cressington Court had dementia, the CQC said, adding that the way their money was being managed left them vulnerable to financial abuse.

Cressington Court - whose manager at the time of the visit was not CQC-registered - has been approached for comment.

The watchdog visited the Beechwood Road care home between January and March after concerns were raised about safety.

Andrew Peck, the CQC's deputy director of adult social care for the region, said there were "significant shortfalls in the way the service was being managed".

Leadership staff did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care, he added.

He said: "We also witnessed some activities which had a detrimental impact on people's mental wellbeing.

"For example, in the ground floor lounge music was played excessively loudly and there was a three-hour period during which nursery rhymes were played repeatedly."

Inspectors also found some staff did not know people's names and staff did not respect people's privacy or dignity.

This included not intervening when a visiting health professional carried out tasks in the communal lounge.

And staff did not ensure medicines and treatments were safe and met people's needs, and the leadership did not listen to concerns about safety or investigate or report safety events.

The CQC has placed the service into special measures, which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while they make improvements.

The care home is run by Lotus Care (Cressington Court) Ltd.

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