A South London care service has been criticised by the care watchdog after a patient claimed they were left stuck in bed because a member of staff didn’t turn up on time.

Another person claimed they missed a hospital appointment because carers at First Choice Social Care & Housing Limited didn’t get them ready in time, a report by the Care Quality Commission found. 

One care workers allegedly arrived four hours late to a patient’s home,  according to a health professional quoted in the report published on October 25.

An inspector found that staff arrived at a third of visits over 45 minutes behind schedule.

In some cases workers were timetabled to be in two different locations at once. A CQC inspector said an “ineffective deployment of staff” put people’s safety at risk and ordered the care service to improve. 

First Choice Social Care & Housing Limited is also known as Borough of Lewisham but it is not linked to Lewisham Council.

The care service told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the CQC report was inaccurate and denied staff turned up late to appointments.

The CQC report reads: “We found [an] example where a person remained in bed because the second of the required two care workers arrived one hour after the first care worker.

"That meant the initial care worker could not use the hoist alone to help the person out of bed.”

It added: “We found a third of all care calls recorded showed care workers arrived over 45 minutes late for the planned care visit time.

"The evidence also showed late calls were impacted by staff not having enough planned travel time between care call visits.

“The data also showed that some staff were scheduled to provide care at two different locations at the same time and the ECM data showed staff had logged their care visits at both locations as having taken place at the same time.”

It continues: “After the inspection we received information from another health and social care professional who told us a care worker arrived four hours after the planned care call and refused to complete the evening call.”

A person, who identified themselves as the registered manager of First Choice Social Care & Housing Limited but refused to give their name, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “There were lots of inaccuracies that First Choice challenged but because of how CQC works there is nothing we could have done about it.”

They added: “For the timeliness, the carers were not late.

"They were there on time.

"We started a new IT system.

"Unfortunately for us we have just started using that IT system post-Brexit.

"They were trying to get their head around it. Some people don’t know that you have to log in… It was not capturing the actual time that they did for all the clients.”

The manager added that the care service had drawn up an “action plan” following the CQC report. 

The CQC inspection was carried out over three days in June.

First Choice Social Care & Housing Limited was rated “requires improvement” overall, as well as for safety and how it was led.

The service retained a grade of ‘good’ for how caring it was, in addition to its effectiveness and responsiveness. 

A statement sent to the Local Democracy Reporting Service by First Choice Social Care and Housing Limited’s solicitor, on behalf of the service, said: “As an organisation, safe and good quality care delivery to the people we support is of utmost importance to us.  Many providers have faced unprecedented recruitment challenges alongside increased demand for services driven by local authority demand.

“The CQC inspection took place during a time when the organisation was moving over to a new record keeping IT system during the period of the inspection.

"Since the inspection, we have driven significant improvements most notably with the introduction of our new record keeping software. 

"The registered manager monitors and audits all commissioned clients through documented records and regular calls to ensure both service users and its workers are robustly monitored.  

“This includes matters such as spot checks, face to face visits and training of all staff.  All workers are DBS checked, referenced checked before commencement of work, inducted for 12 weeks and documented with 30 hours of shadowing, care certificated before commencement of work.

"We are continuing to work alongside the CQC to provide assurances of our good quality and safe care, including lodging monthly reports with the CQC and copying the relevant local authorities.”

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