23 September 2016
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Eaton Court Residential Home is situated in a residential area of Wallasey, close to local amenities and transport. There is parking to the front of the property and a small garden to the rear. It provides accommodation for up to 26 persons who require personal care. There were 13 people living in the home at the time of our inspection. The service employed 19 staff including the registered manager and the financial manager.
The home required a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. There was a registered manager in post but they were on holiday at the time of this inspection. The financial manager was in attendance.
We observed that staffing levels were a concern as we saw that staff were providing care for people who were in bed or dealing with visiting professionals leaving the rest of the home with no care support. Feedback from staff, relatives/visitors also confirmed that they felt there was a problem.
We saw the premises were in need of redecoration and some areas had been placed ‘out of bounds’ due to disrepair. We also saw that water temperatures were not regulated in some communal areas of the home. For some weeks we found that a bath chair had been out of commission which meant that some people had not been able to access bathing facilities.