3 March 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Merlin Court Care Home is a purpose-built residential home for up to 62 people, some of whom live with dementia. Rooms are on two floors accessed by stairs and a lift and are all ensuite. There are various communal areas including a cinema, café, hair salon, lounges and dining areas. At the time of our inspection there were 38 people living at the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The provider had reported events to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) when they were legally required to. The registered manager had a good understanding of what events needed to be reported. Records of incidents demonstrated notifications had been completed promptly when needed. Incidents had been managed well, with information shared with relevant health and social care professionals. Incidents had been reviewed and action taken to minimise the risk of them happening again.
Infection prevention and control systems had been updated to reflect the COVID-19 pandemic. There were robust systems in place to ensure the home was clean. People told us they were happy with the support that staff had provided. High contact areas such as door handles had additional cleaning throughout the day.
Staff had personal protective equipment (PPE) and had been trained on how to use it safely. Staff told us they felt safe working at the service. We observed staff working in safe ways throughout our visit.
Visitors were screened before entering the building to minimise the risk of COVID-19 being brought into the home. All visiting by relatives was planned and booked in advance. The provider had built a garden visiting room with screens to keep people and relatives safe. Plans were in place to arrange indoor visits, in line with the lifting of government restrictions.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 22 July 2019). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We undertook this targeted inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulation 18 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 had been met. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.
CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or 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.
We also 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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Merlin Court 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.