Archived: Park Farm Lodge

Updated 8 September 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 5 August 2015 and was unannounced. Our inspection team consisted of five inspectors and two experts by experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

We checked the information we held about the service and provider. This included the notifications that the provider had sent to us about incidents at the service and information we had received from the public.

We spoke with 23 people who used the service and 12 visiting relatives. We also spoke with eight members of nursing and care staff and the manager. We did this to gain people’s views about the care and to check that standards of care were being met.

We spent time in communal areas observing the care people received and we looked at eight people’s care records to see if their records were accurate and up to date. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service. These included quality checks, staff rotas and staff files.

Updated 8 September 2015

We inspected this service on 5 August 2015. The inspection was unannounced. At our last inspection in January 2015 we found the provider was breaching the legal requirements associated with safe care and treatment and the management of the service. The provider sent us an action plan demonstrating how they would improve the service. At this inspection we found that improvements had been made, however we found that an improvement in staff availability was required.

There was no registered manager in post; however a manager had been appointed who was progressing through the process to register with us. 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.

Park Farm Lodge is an 80 bedded care home. The home is divided into two units, one providing dementia nursing care for up to 40 people and the other providing frail elderly nursing care for up to 40 people. There were 45 people living in the home on the day of our inspection.

We found that at times there were insufficient staff available to care for people safely. The arrangements for the management and administration of people’s prescribed medicines had improved since our last inspection. Staff understood their role in providing safe care and the actions they should take if they had concerns about people’s safety. People looked relaxed in the company of staff and told us they felt safe.

People were provided with a choice of suitable food and were encouraged to take adequate fluids to support their health. People’s health and wellbeing needs were regularly monitored and when necessary people received additional support from health care professionals.

CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and to report what we find. The DoLS are for people who cannot make a decision about the way they are being treated or cared for and where other people have to make the decision for them. We saw that people were routinely asked for their consent before their care was provided. When people lacked the capacity to make decisions for themselves we saw that staff understood the requirement to work within the Act.

People were treated kindly and politely by staff. People’s privacy was promoted by staff to support their dignity. Staff recognised people’s individuality and provided care which respected their preferences. People were supported to maintain the relationships which were important to them.

People had opportunities to meet socially with others living in the home or were supported individually to take part in hobbies or activities which interested them. People and relatives knew how to raise concerns or complaints and felt their worries would be dealt with appropriately.

People who used the service and staff felt well supported by the new management arrangements. An open and inclusive home was being promoted. There were arrangements in place to monitor the quality of the service and use the information gained to improve care.