A CARE home in Wallasey has been fined £90,000 for failing to treat residents with respect and breaches of rules governing administration of medicines.

At Wirral Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Mother Redcaps Care Home was found guilty on two charges.

The first was failing to make arrangements for the recording, handling, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines.

It was also guilty of failing to ensure the appointment of a registered manager in compliance with the condition on the certificate of registration.

The company which manages Mother Redcaps, in Lincoln Drive, had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, brought by watchdogs the Care Quality Commission.

The home is registered to look after up to 51 people, including many with dementia.

On its most recent inspection in October last year, the commission found the home was failing to treat people with respect, failing to meet people’s needs, keeping people safe and effectively managing the home.

The charges relate to evidence found during unannounced inspections between April 2011 and April 2013.

The court heard the home had failed to heed the advice and guidance from a CQC pharmacy inspector on numerous occasions and following the serving of two warning notices, the company was found guilty and fined £20,000 on each charge.

It also has been ordered to pay the commission's costs of more than £50,000.

Debbie Westhead, deputy chief inspector of adult social care in the North, said: "People are entitled to services which are safe, effective, compassionate and high quality.

"If a care home fails to provide services which meet these standards – they are in breach of the law.

“I welcome the court’s verdict in sending out a clear message that we will not tolerate care which falls below these standards.

“We have continued to monitor the home along with our partners from Wirral Council and we now have some confidence in the new registered manager.

"We hope these improvements can be sustained “

She added: "We will continue to monitor this care home and will return unannounced in the near future to check that the required improvements have been made.

"We will not hesitate to take further action if that is required to protect the interests of the people who live here.”

Dr Amir Matta FRCS, the owner of Mother Redcaps Care Home said: "The recent court case dealt with complaints made by the CQC concerning paperwork and administration issues that occurred in 2011 / 2012.

"Since that time the CQC has re-inspected Mother Redcaps and found in January 2014 and again this January, the report will be published any day soon, that our care home is fully compliant in all areas.

"We now have an excellent Matron (Donna Bennett) and excellent hard working staff.

"The court case arose out of the fact that we disagreed with the CQC inspector's assessments about the paperwork records of the medicines our nurses gave to our residents.

"The CQC gave us the option of paying a "fixed penalty" fine of £4,000 instead of going to court. 
 
"We did not believe that any "fixed penalty" was deserved and so we refused to accept the "fixed penalty", this led to the recent court case.

"Part of our grievance was that the previous CQC inspectors were unfairly scrutinising the work of our nurses and have not applied anything like the same level of scrutiny to other local care homes. unfortunately the judge did not agree with our case.

"Our lawyers are preparing an appeal against the court's findings.

"Mother Redcaps is a warm, lovely, modern care home where our residents receive kindness and excellent care."