Worksop: Care home contract suspended by County Council

The Victoria Care Home in Worksop has had its contract suspended by Nottinghamshire County Council amid claims of poor standards and bad management.

And now an insider has claimed the home’s owners Dukeries Healthcare have tried to keep the incident under wraps and not told any of the families of their residents what has happened

The council confirmed that the licence was suspended on July 15th at the 93-bed home and the suspension remains in place at this time.

The suspension means the home has an embargo on taking in new residents and that will remain the case until council is satisfied things have improved.

And the home insider says the families of current residents should know what has happened.

“The home’s been under embargo for nearly three weeks now but they’ve not told any of the residents or their families and they’re just trying to carry on as if nothing is wrong,” said the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.

“The families should know what’s going on but they are not telling them and just trying to keep it quiet and the carers there have been told not to tell anyone what’s happened.”

“Confirming the contract suspension, David Hamilton, service director for personal care and support (older people) at Notts county council, said: “The council will not tolerate poor standards within any care home in the county.”

“We suspended our contract with Victoria Care Home in Worksop on July 15th over concerns about the management and running of the home including their infection control practices.”

“Suspensions are lifted when we are satisfied that our concerns have been addressed and we will continue to work with the home’s managers in order to ensure standards are improved.”

In a statement, Jackie Brayford, operations director at Dukeries Healthcare, said: “I can confirm that Dukeries Healthcare is working, and has been working closely with Bassetlaw Clinical Commissioning Group over the last few weeks.”

“An action plan addressing the key areas of concern has been shared with the council and will be monitored by both the council and the company.”

“We will be meeting with the council to discuss matters again on August 30th. This is the first available date for meeting given the council officers’ holiday commitments.”

“In the meantime the company are committed to ensuring that residents are comfortable and the home continues to maintain full compliance with the Care Quality Commission.”