Background to this inspection
Updated
19 February 2021
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.
This inspection took place on 14 January 2021 and was unannounced.
Updated
19 February 2021
About the service:
¿ Kent Lodge offers accommodation and personal care for up to 38 older people, some of whom are living with the experience of dementia. The accommodation is provided over two floors. There were 35 people using the service at the time of our inspection.
¿ The service is provided by Shaw Healthcare (Group) Limited, a national organisation providing health and social care.
People’s experience of using this service:
¿ Improvements had been made to the management of medicines. People were receiving their medicines safely and as prescribed.
¿ Where there were risks to people’s safety and wellbeing, these had been assessed appropriately. There were guidelines and support plans in place and these were regularly reviewed and updated where changes were identified.
¿ Following concerns about the standards of hygiene in the kitchen, the Food Standards Agency had undertaken a further visit and were satisfied that all actions had been taken and standards were met.
¿ People were protected by the provider’s arrangements in relation to the prevention and control of infection. The home was clean and hazard-free.
¿ Recruitment checks were undertaken before staff started working for the service and included checks to ensure they had the relevant previous experience and qualifications.
¿ There were enough staff deployed to support people who used the service and meet their needs. The provider had contingency plans in place in the event of staff absence.
¿ The provider had processes for the recording and investigation of incidents and accidents. Lessons were learned when things went wrong, and appropriate action was taken to minimise the risk of reoccurrence.
¿ The provider had effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and put action plans in place where concerns were identified.
¿ The registered manager felt well supported by senior managers and worked with them to implement improvement plans and make the necessary improvements.
¿ There were regular team and management meetings where important information was shared. People who used the service and their relatives were consulted about the service and took part in regular meetings.
Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection, the service was rated requires improvement (Published on 28 November 2018) for the second consecutive year. At this inspection, the overall rating had improved.
Why we inspected: At the previous inspection, we found repeated breaches of two Regulations in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance and issued the provider with two warning notices, telling them to make improvements by 31 December 2018 and they sent us an action plan telling us how they would do this. We undertook this focused inspection to check that the provider had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions ‘is the service safe?’ and ‘is the service well-led?’ You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Kent Lodge 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 any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk