'Serious and significant concerns' for residents at Ruthrieston House care home in Aberdeen

Inspectors have raised “serious and significant concerns” regarding the quality of care at a retirement home.

Ruthrieston House in Aberdeen has been issued with an improvement notice by the care inspectorate to ensure that residents experience a service which is well-led and that service users’ health, safety and wellbeing needs are accurately assessed.

An unannounced inspection had previously been carried out in June 2024. Inspectors raised issues with staffing arrangements, care and reporting of incidents

The care home, which is run by VSA, has been given until January 2025 to enact the changes need.

If the requirements are not met the care inspectorate state that further action may be taken.

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: “An inspection has identified serious and significant concerns about the quality of care experienced by residents at Ruthrieston House in Aberdeen.

“The report of the inspection will be published on our website in due course.

“We understand this is a difficult and distressing time for residents, their families and staff at the service.

“However, our first priority is always the health and wellbeing of residents of the service.

“Because of our concerns about the safety of residents we have issued an Improvement Notice to the service. This sets out the significant improvements that must be made within a specified timeframe.

“We are in contact with and monitoring the service to follow up on the required improvements.

“If we are not satisfied that sustained improvement has been made we will not hesitate to take further action.

“Anyone with a concern about a service can contact us on 0345 600 9527.”

Sue Freeth, CEO of VSA, said: “At VSA our main priority is providing safe and high-quality care to the people we support. We take the feedback of the regulator extremely seriously and are working as hard as possible to complete the requirements detailed in the recent Care Inspectorate report.

We remain in regular contact with the Care Inspectorate and continue to work closely with Aberdeen City Council, Ruthrieston House residents, their families and next of kin.”