20 November 2020
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Read House is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to 40 older people who are blind or visually impaired or older people with a physical disability. The service does not provide nursing care. At the time of our inspection there were 32 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Improvements had been made to Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices since the last inspection on 16 October 2020. Staff at different levels of seniority had become involved in this process, sharing learning and providing input into changes and improvements made. People living at Read House and their relatives were kept up to date about the impact of COVID-19 on the service by the management team, and relevant policies and procedures were in place.
A registered manager was in post, supported by a wider management and administrative team. We reviewed records to check management oversight of other areas of health and safety systems and governance processes at the service. This was not always robust. We discussed these findings with the management team who told us they would put an action plan in place to mitigate possible risk and demonstrate quality assurance.
We made a recommendation on following best practice guidance for managing the risk of Legionella.
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 25 June 2018).
The service was inspected but not rated as part of an Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) thematic review (published 17 November 2020).
Why we inspected
During the thematic review on 16 October 2020, we identified some concerns about IPC measures at the service. Following the inspection the provider submitted an action plan outlining the improvements they would make as a result.
We undertook a further targeted inspection on 20 November 2020 to check improvements had been made in line with the provider’s action plan, that IPC practice was safe, and the service was compliant with IPC measures. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains good.
CQC have introduced targeted inspections 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 follow up with professionals to check support is in place for the service, including additional training on safe working practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will follow up with the service on the progress of their action plan. 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.