Widespread Legionella at Highgate Care Home
Posted on 23rd April 2021
The new owner of Highgate care home has claimed that the care home has widespread Legionella and could be forced to close before the end of May.
The director, Mitesh Dhanak has stated the bacteria is ‘rife’ throughout the care home. They are seeking urgent help and advice from the CQC and Public Health England.
Pensioners that live there aged between 84 and 104 have been told they need to find somewhere else to live by end of May which has caused widespread anger over the health of the residents during a pandemic.
Mr Dhanak has explained that a “number of significant issues have come to light that has led us to question why the home has remained open as long as it has”.
He said these issues include:
-Widespread Legionella throughout the building. The previous owner was unable to remove the source of the issue due to both the age of the building and its outdated Edwardian plumbing designs. We are currently awaiting urgent advice from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Public Health England (PHE) to whether the home is safe to remain open.
-An unreliable central heating system, which currently uses eight boilers and is entirely unsuitable, not one working bath in the home, and an unfit drainage system across the site that regularly blocks.
-Environmental issues that we have swiftly addressed including the removal of a dead tree that posed a significant safety risk due to its proximity to a resident’s bedroom window and the removal of rats from the building.
-Two residents falling within the building (in 2014 and 2017) which resulted in major injuries for one and the death of the latter.
These tragic accidents highlight, in our view, the previous lack of risk assessing at the home and the challenges presented by the current building for safely housing older residents.
Residents’ families have said that they have been “crushed” by the “appalling” treatment of their loved ones at this time.
You can read more here.
Tagged as: aylesbury, bacteria, blog, care home, cqc, geswater, highgate, Legionella, May, Public Health England
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