Archived: Westhill Park Care Home

We found the following examples of good practice.

• Safe arrangements were in place for professional visitors to the service. This included temperature checks, risk questionnaire, hand sanitisation and wearing a mask. An indoor visiting room had been prepared that included a Perspex screen to reduce the risk of cross infection when relatives were able to commence visiting their family members.

• Isolation, cohorting and zoning was used to manage the spread of infection. This meant that people self-isolated in their rooms which were all en-suite when necessary. Staff were allocated to work on one floor. Each floor had a small lounge at the end of each corridor, and these were being used as staff rooms to limit staff movement between floors.

• Enhanced cleaning and disinfection took place to reduce the risk infection spread. This included high touch areas such as door handles and handrails. There were sufficient numbers of housekeeping staff who completed checklists to record and monitor cleaning tasks.

• There were sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks, gloves, aprons and hand sanitiser available. Staff had received training in infection prevention and control, PPE including donning and doffing and hand hygiene.

• PPE was kept in and near people’s rooms for staff to easily access when they were supporting people with personal care. PPE was disposed of safely in clinical waste bins which helped reduce the risk of cross contamination.

• A regular programme of weekly testing for COVID-19 was in place for staff and people who lived in the service. This meant swift action could be taken if any positive results were received.

• Infection prevention and control audits took place which ensured the registered manager had oversight of all aspects of infection control. Policies, procedures and risk assessments related to COVID-19 were up to date which supported staff to keep people safe.

• The registered manager had undertaken a review with the Public Health Community Infection Prevention Control Team to consider and reflect upon changes implemented in the area of infection prevention and control. This showed how staff and management had responded to the challenges of the pandemic in order to help protect people and keep them safe.

• The laundry area was spacious, well ventilated, clean and organised. There were two seperate doors, one to enter with soiled linen, and one to exit. There were clean and dirty areas for linen to be stored. This helped to reduce the risk of infection spread.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Westhill Park Care Home Ashton Lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Westhill Park care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to 45 people aged 65 and over and people living with dementia at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 66 people.

Westhill Park Care Home is a purpose-built care home which accommodates people across three floors. Each floor has a communal lounge, dining area and kitchen. All bedrooms have private en-suite facilities. There are two lifts operating between floors which also give access to a library, cinema café and bar. There are communal gardens and parking.

People’s experience of using this service

Information around people’s end of life preferences and religion was not consistently in place. Work on this had started and the provider was arranging training for staff where required. People were well supported with bereavement.

People were safe. Systems and processes protected people from the risk of abuse. The home was clean and well maintained with infection control measures in place. Regular risk assessment took place and measures put in place to mitigate risk. Accidents and incidents were monitored and analysed for trends and patterns.

Medicines were managed safely, and people received their medicines when they needed them.

Staff were recruited safely and received regular training and support.

Staff worked in partnership with other healthcare professionals and ensured people had timely access to healthcare when they needed it.

People had choices and enough food and drink and were well supported when needed. Specialist dietary requirements were well communicated and supported.

There was a positive culture and care was person centred with people’s choices and preferences assessed and planned in to care with people and their family’s involvement.

Staff were kind, caring and respected privacy and dignity. People were encouraged to be as independent as possible and were active members of the community. Peoples were supported to maintain their relationships.

There were a range of activities available in the home and in the community. People were involved in the planning of activity.

People knew how to make a complaint and complaints were managed in line with the providers policy and procedure.

Regular audits ensured that the registered manager maintained effective oversight of the safety and quality of the service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 8 February 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on when the service registered with us.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.