Today, BBC Scotland has a piece on the rebranding of the Balhousie Care Group as part of the multinational AcalisCare. Owner Tony Banks, above has sold his troubled firm for an ‘undisclosed sum.’

There’s no mention in the BBC Scotland piece of this from October 2020:

Balhousie Care Group are by no means ‘leading ‘ when it comes to infection control at this time. Two of their homes had serious problems when inspected recently by the Care Inspectorate:

North Inch House, Perth

16 June 2020

8 references to infection

Staff were observed to move between units, lacked understanding of infection control practices and there was poor coordination of working practices. Due to the severity of the concern you, the provider, must take the following action immediately: Starting immediately but to be completed within 72 hours (by Monday 25 May 2020) you must put in place and implement measures to ensure consistent management and leadership in the service to support staff practice and to coordinate the delivery of care in a way which promotes good infection control practices. This should include, but is not limited to, reducing the flow of staff between units, managing the deployment of staff, implementing an enhanced cleaning schedule within the service and introducing improved communication practices between staff.

Balhousie Huntly Care Home, Huntly

23 September 2020

18 references to infection

Staff were not seen to not wash their hands been assisting people with their meal. Improvements must be made to infection control practices and adherence to guidance on how best to support people to remain healthy and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic it is essential that strict infection control practices and procedures are implemented in order to make sure people are safe. We identified infection control practices that caused concern.

Improvements need to be made to the quality assurance process in the service. Important infection prevention and control audits were blank. This meant that the areas of practice that have caused us concern, had not been identified by the service. There were no audits of staff practice that would have identified any deficits in training or poor practice.

One nurse was on duty each shift. Staff moved between units in the home to enable the nurse to work in the area where clinical support was required. The crossover of staff increased the risk of the spread of infection. A review of staffing should be undertaken to minimise the risk.

Staff who had been employed during the COVID-19 pandemic did not have any infection control, hand washing and correct use of PPE training as part of their induction. The expectation was that new staff would work alongside their peers and learn as they went. This concerned us because of the observations of unsafe infection control practices we had seen, it meant that new staff would not be learning good principles of infection control.

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/care-services

On multinational care home owners and pandemic deaths, see these:

https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/05/19/did-corporate-care-home-employers-use-untested-agency-staff-to-spread-the-epidemic-throughout-scotland/

https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/11/12/39840/