25 August 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Palace House Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 33 people. At the time of the inspection, there were 33 people living in the home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People felt safe. They said staff were kind and helpful and they were treated well. People and their relatives were happy with the service they received. Staff understood how to protect people from abuse and recruitment processes ensured new staff were suitable. There were enough staff to meet people's needs and to ensure their safety, although people’s views varied on this. People’s medicines were managed safely. People received their medicines when they needed from staff who had been trained and had their competency checked. We discussed areas for improvement such as ensuring opening dates were recorded to all boxed and bottled medicines. Any risks to people’s safety and well-being were assessed and recorded; clear guidance was provided for staff and any changes in people's health and well-being were referred to healthcare professionals as appropriate. Infection control was well managed, and the home was clean, maintained and free from odours. We discussed areas for improvement such as the lift flooring and walls and doorways in need of attention. However, there was a development plan available to support improvements.
People, their relatives, visitors to the home and staff told us the service was managed well. Staff enjoyed working at the home. The home worked in partnership with other organisations to provide safe, effective and consistent care. People were treated as individuals and their diversity was respected. People's care was tailored to their needs and preferences and staff knew people well. There were effective systems to assess and monitor the quality of the service and the practice of staff. People's views and opinions of the service were sought and acted on. The registered manager promoted an open culture in relation to accidents and incidents. There was clear evidence of changes to practice and lessons learned from any incidents.
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 good (published 11 September 2019).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part by notification of a specific incident and concerns in relation to failure to seek prompt medical advice. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. We found lessons had been learned and measures had been put in place to improve the service provided.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service remains good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Palace House Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.