22 March 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Waltham House Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 33 older people, including people living with dementia in 1 adapted building. At the time of our inspection there were 23 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Quality monitoring systems were in place which helped to check various areas of the home. Any actions identified were carried out to make sure the service was continually improving. However, some improvements in relation to monitoring records were required.
People were happy with the care they received, they felt safe and well looked after.
People had support from staff who had been safely recruited. Staff received training in safeguarding and understood their role and responsibilities to protect people from abuse. People and staff spoke positively about the management of the service. Staff received guidance and support from management regularly and when required.
Staff followed care plans and risk assessments which were in place for known risk, up to date, and regularly reviewed. People were supported to take their medicines safely as prescribed.
People were regularly asked their views on the service provided and action had been taken when suggestions were made.
People were supported to have access to healthcare services to monitor and maintain their health and well-being. People were encouraged to maintain a healthy diet, where people had specific dietary requirements, these were catered for.
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.
The home was clean and tidy. Staff had access to and followed clear policies and procedures on infection, prevention and control that met current and relevant national guidance.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 30 March 2022).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
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.
This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe and well-led which contain those requirements. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained 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 Waltham House Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendations
We have made a recommendation in relation to information recording systems.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.