Dove Cottage Day Hospice

Updated 17 October 2022

Dove Cottage Day Hospice is operated by Dove Cottage Day Hospice. The service opened in 1996. Dove Cottage Day Hospice is an independent organisation offering a day care hospice to people with life limiting conditions living in Northeast Leicestershire, Rutland and Southeast Nottinghamshire. The service also offers a family support service, complementary therapies and a dementia support group. All services are provided free of charge. The service has no overnight beds. The service is situated close to the village of Stathern. For people who struggle to get to the hospice, there is a team of volunteer drivers and a fleet of minibuses. A donation is requested for the cost of the transport.

There is a registered manager in post. A small team of nurses and nursing assistants are supported by over 35 volunteers. Facilities include communal lounges, a garden room with access to a landscaped garden and treatment rooms where people receive massage and complimentary therapies. Up to 20 people use the service each day. For people who meet hospice criteria, but do not want to attend for day care, there is provision for a bathing service as well as a home loan service, which focusses mainly on the provision of wheelchairs.

Dove Cottage Day Hospice has over 200 volunteers working in the hospice and across five charity shops. The service also operates a tea-room. However, the charity shops and tea-room were not part of this inspection.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced inspection on 28 April 2022.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The service provided the single speciality core service: Treatment of disease, disorder and injury.

Updated 17 October 2022

Our rating of this location went down. We rated it as requires improvement. We rated this location as requires improvement because:

Staff and volunteers were not up to date with all their mandatory training and the provider did not monitor this effectively, which put people at risk of harm. Staff safeguarding training was not completed in line with policy and staff knowledge was varied. Staff assessed risks to people but did not always review them. Care records were not complete or contemporaneous.

The provider did not have policies which included best practice and up to date guidance. The medicines policy contained information which was out of date.

Managers had no way of monitoring the effectiveness of the service. Managers did not use audits to improve the quality of the service. Leaders did not use reliable information or governance systems to assure themselves the service being provided was safe. The provider did not practice safe and effective recruitment practices.

However:

The service had enough staff to care for people and keep them safe. The service controlled infection risk well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.

Staff provided good care and treatment, gave people enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Staff worked well together for the benefit of people, supported them to make decisions about their care. Key services were available three days a week.

Staff treated people with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to people, families and carers.

The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of people’s individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it.

Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of people receiving care. The service engaged well with people and the community to plan and manage services.

Updated 17 October 2022

Our rating of this location went down. We rated it as requires improvement. We rated this location as requires improvement because:

Staff and volunteers were not up to date with all their mandatory training and the provider did not monitor this effectively, which put people at risk of harm. Staff safeguarding training was not completed in line with policy and staff knowledge was varied. Staff assessed risks to people but did not always review them. Care records were not complete or contemporaneous.

The provider did not have policies which included best practice and up to date guidance. The medicines policy contained information which was out of date.

Managers had no way of monitoring the effectiveness of the service. Managers did not use audits to improve the quality of the service. Leaders did not use reliable information or governance systems to assure themselves the service being provided was safe. The provider did not practice safe and effective recruitment practices.

However:

The service had enough staff to care for people and keep them safe. The service controlled infection risk well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.

Staff provided good care and treatment, gave people enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Staff worked well together for the benefit of people, supported them to make decisions about their care. Key services were available three days a week.

Staff treated people with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to people, families and carers.

The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of people’s individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it.

Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of people receiving care. The service engaged well with people and the community to plan and manage services.

Updated 30 October 2019

Hospices for adults was the main activity of the service.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.