CQC criticises care home over fire safety practices

CQC criticises care home over fire safety practices

Staff not adequately trained

A care home in Enfield has been warned by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over its dangerous fire safety practices, and been told it requires improvement.

The CQC visited the Elmhurst Residential Home, which houses 14 people with dementia, in June this year, where it found a lack of suitable planning in the event of a fire.

The report stated: “There were no risk assessments or plans to evacuate the people in the event of a fire.

“Most staff had not received training in fire safety and staff were not aware on how to evacuate people that lacked in mobility living in the upper floors.

“We found a person was high risk of causing fire and a risk assessment had not been completed to mitigate this risk. Fire evacuation equipment had not been installed to evacuate people in the event of a fire.”

The inspection also found that contingency for individual patients who suffered from disabilities were not made in the event of a fire.

It went on to state: “Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans had not been completed in full to determine how to evacuate people in the event of an emergency.

“Risk assessments were not always being updated to reflect people’s current circumstances and health needs.”

Original sources: CQC | Enfield Independent

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