Kent care homes need Improvement
Strode Park House, Herne Bay, rated inadequate.
Healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission has rated 6 Care homes in Kent as ‘requiring improvement’ since the start of 2023 with one care home even being rated as ‘inadequate’.
In these care homes the leadership and the safety had been flagged as a reason for concern. Only one month into the year it is not a good start for Kent.
John Scott from the Care Quality Commission believes that Kent overall is doing quite well, and we shouldn’t panic.
“I have seen in the past year that figure be a lot larger for Kent, but at the minute we will just be concentrating on those services to make sure it improves. If it doesn’t improve we will take action.”
“Whenever you have an inadequate service you should be worried about that but it all depends on whether the service improves.”
Harry Whittaker, 20, From Orpington has worked in two care homes over the years. He believes the problem lies in a lack of funding.
“There’s not enough funding for it to be adequate and to properly care for people at the end of their life.”
“The care assistants aren’t being paid enough at all, the wage they get is similar to what you can get in the supermarket and the work is horrible with long hours.”
From his years of experience he has learnt the importance of quality care.
“Even though they are getting to the end of their lives they are still people, they are still important and they contribute so much. I think we should give them the best care and the best treatment.”
The first care home he worked in was ranked as ‘good’ by the CQC and the other as ‘requiring improvement’. He noted that there was a clear difference between the two.
“The standard of homing isn’t as good; the hygiene, cleanliness, resources, staffing, the rooms, the food certainly isn’t as good.”
“I wouldn’t say that it is a bad care home but there is definitely need for improvement, and certain requirements just aren’t being met.”
As the year goes on more reports will come out about the progress of these care homes, with hope the future will be brighter for Kents care.
