Oxfordshire care service slammed for medicine and rights breaches

Gain Healthcare Ltd in Bicester is a care service that provides support to people in their homes who are elderly, sectioned under the mental health act, have disabilities, dementia, eating disorders, and substance misuse problems.

Inspectors found seven breaches of the legal regulations in relation to person-centered care, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, need for consent, and staffing.

The inspection found the service failed to ensure that medicines and treatments were safe or met people’s needs, capacities and preferences.

People were also not consistently involved in planning their medicines or in decisions about how their medicines were managed.

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The service provides care to people in and around Bicester (Image: Ed Nix)

Relatives told inspectors they did not feel confident that all staff were trained to administer their loved one’s medicines safely and sometimes chose to administer medicines themselves to reduce the risk of errors.

They did not consistently inform people of their rights, nor did they respect or lawfully apply these rights when delivering care and treatment.

The service was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between February and March this year, following concerns raised by relatives of people receiving care,

At the time of the inspection only one person was receiving care from the service.

The service was immediately placed into special measures.

Gain Healthcare Ltd has been approached for comment.