A Brighton nursing home has been told that it requires improvement after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Hazelgrove Nursing Home, in Heath Hill Avenue, Bevendean, was inspected last month
The CQC said that its overall rating for the home was “requires improvement” the third best out of the four inspection gradings.
Inspectors said that the service was good when measuring whether it was effective, caring and responsive.
But when looking at whether it was safe and well led, they found that it required improvement.
The CQC report said: “We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection at Hazelgrove Nursing Home on (Wednesday) 26 and (Thursday) 27 November 2014.
Breaches
“Breaches of legal requirements were found and as a result we undertook a focused inspection on (Tuesday) 2 June 2015, to follow up on whether the required actions had been taken to address the previous breaches identified and to see if the required improvements had been made.
“Hazelgrove Nursing Home is registered to provide care to people with nursing needs, many of whom were living with dementia. The home is purpose-built.
“The service can provide care and support for up to 37 people. There were 17 people living at the home during our inspection (in November).”
The home had not had a registered manager for five months when inspected in November.
The CQC said: “People spoke positively of the home and commented they felt safe.
“Our own observations and the records we looked at did not always reflect the positive comments some people had made.
“People’s safety was being compromised in a number of areas. Care plans and risk assessments did not routinely reflect people’s assessed level of care needs.
“People’s medicines were stored safely and in line with legal regulations and people received their medication on time.
Errors
“However, there were numerous errors and omissions in the recording of administration of medicines … and controlled drugs.
“Hazelgrove Nursing Home was not meeting the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
“Mental capacity assessments were not routinely completed or in line with legal requirements.
“Care plans lacked sufficient information on people’s likes, dislikes and individual choice.
“Information was not readily available on people’s life history and there was no evidence that people were regularly involved in their care planning.
“The opportunity for social activity and recreational outings were extremely limited. No regular meaningful group or individual activities took place or were planned for people.
“There was insufficient day to day management cover to supervise care staff and care delivery.
“The current management staffing structure at the home did not provide consistent leadership or direction for staff.
Caring
“People we spoke with were very complimentary about the caring nature of the staff. People told us care staff were kind and compassionate. Staff interactions demonstrated staff had built rapports with people and people responded well to staff.
“We found a number of breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.”
The CQC made a further unannounced visit to the home, which is run by a company called Yara Enterprises, last month to carry out what it called a “focused inspection”.
The inspectors’ report said: “We found significant improvements had been made but we continue to have concerns with the recording and systems in place at the service in respect to the management of medicines. There were 29 people living at the home during our inspection.
“People’s medicines were stored safely and in line with legal regulations and people received their medication on time.
“However, there were errors and omissions in the recording of administration of medicines.
“We have identified this as an area of practice that continues to cause concern and have asked the provider to make improvements in this area.
“There was a manager employed who had been in post for approximately six months. However, in this time an application to register the manager with CQC had not been made.
Monitoring
“Despite the above concerns, the provider had taken action to improve the safety and delivery of care people received.
“Risks had been appropriately identified and robustly addressed both in relation to people’s specific needs and in relation to the service as a whole.
“Staff were aware of people’s individual risk assessments and knew how to mitigate the risks.
“There was constant monitoring and reassessment of risks which ensured that staff took actions to protect people.
“The delivery of care was suited to the person and not task based and people and visiting relatives spoke highly of staff and the quality of care provided. People felt well looked after and supported.
“We observed friendly and genuine relationships had developed between people and staff.
“A relative told us, ‘I can honestly say there isn’t one member of staff here who doesn’t care’.
“Care plans described people’s needs and preferences and they were encouraged to be as independent as possible.
“People could choose how to spend their day and they took part in activities.”
To read the CQC report, click here.
The piece needs more on the ultimate owners.
So many nursing homes are part of international firms.
More anon.