23 June 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Apex Care Centre is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 28 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 40 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The service had processes in place to ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse. The risks to their individual safety had been assessed and measures were in place to reduce risk. However, people newly admitted to the service did not always come with sufficient information for staff to support them in a safe person-centred way.
Staff told us and records showed there were not always enough staff to support people.
People’s medicines were not always managed safely.
Quality monitoring processes were in place, but some aspects required improvement in relation to medicines and oversight of falls.
The service was clean and there were good infection prevention and control measures in place to reduce the risk to people.
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.
People’s care was provided in a person-centred way and there was an open and caring culture at the service. Relatives had confidence in the staff to support their family member.
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 5 December 2020).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to staffing levels, and lack of timely personal care. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement in management of staffing levels and quality assurance processes.
The provider had already put measures in place to make improvements to the areas we highlighted.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Apex care centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.