Archived: Hospital Intake Team

Hospital Intake Team is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people who need short term support for between 10 and 42 days when discharged from hospital.

CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection the service were supporting 53 people, all of whom received the regulated activity of personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People had not experienced any missed care visits but told us they often experienced an inconsistency of arrival and finish times. People told us timings meant the care they received felt rushed and impacted on not being provided with hot meals.

People told us they struggled to communicate with some staff due to language barriers and people and relatives felt that communication with office staff and out of hours support was poor.

People knew how to complain but had chosen in some cases not to, the registered manager was looking to improve in this area. Complaints received by the provider were thoroughly investigated and action taken to improve the care.

People were supported by staff who were trained to meet most of their needs and understood how to keep them safe. Some staff did not have a good understanding of specific conditions such as Dementia and Parkinson’s Disease.

Staff respected people’s choices, people told us they felt safe and staff were kind and caring in how they treated them. However, people often felt rushed which had an impact on how much time they were given to try and maintain independence.

People had their medicines monitored safely and staff were trained to ensure they understood best practice for medicines administration. Errors were quickly identified by senior managers and action taken to improve.

Staff received one to one and group support to develop and assess their skills. Safe recruitment practices were followed to ensure people were not supported by unsuitable staff.

People were offered the opportunity to receive free food and toiletries on discharge from hospital if they were unable to source these for themselves.

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.

Staff worked with external professionals, including specialists supporting people receiving end of life care, to make sure people had everything they needed to live in a dignified way.

We have made a recommendation about improving consistency of times for care visits, provision of food and drink, and improved communication and staff training.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was ‘inspected but not rated’ (published 1 April 2021).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

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.

Hospital Intake Team is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people who need short term support for between 10 and 42 days when discharged from hospital. At the time of the inspection the service were supporting 51 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People told us they were happy with their care and felt safe. Where there had been problems at the beginning of the service, they raised them with the office staff, and the problems were resolved. One person told us, “I feel safe and I’m free to speak up.”

People were supported by staff who understood how to reduce the risks of COVID-19 and infection prevention and control. People told us staff always wore personal protective equipment (PPE) and socially distanced as much as possible while providing care. A person said, “[Staff] wear gloves, aprons, masks, shields, handwash and sanitise. I’m happy.”

People had very detailed care plans and risk assessments that were kept up to date and stated how they preferred their care to be delivered. On discharge from hospital the manager ensured a full initial assessment of people’s needs were shared with staff, while waiting for the full care plan to be put in place. This ensured safe care and an awareness of all risks and any medical conditions.

The manager had processes and systems in place that ensured people were safe and risks monitored. Due to the short-term nature of the care provided, risks and care needs were reviewed more regularly.

People were happy that care provided in relation to manual handling needs was safe and that if any problems arose, they could speak to the staff or manager and would be listened to.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

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

Why we inspected

We undertook this targeted inspection to check on a specific concern we had about COVID-19 practices both in the office and the community and the understanding and management of these risks. We also had concerns about manual handling training, staff inductions and the culture of the management. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains unrated.

CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

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.