Archived: Kew House

Updated 8 October 2015

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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

We undertook a focused inspection of Kew House on 14 September 2015. This inspection was completed to check that improvements to meet legal requirements planned by the registered provider after our comprehensive inspection on 9 and 19 June 2015 had been made. We inspected the service against one of the five questions we ask about services: is the service safe? This is because the service was not meeting legal requirements in relation to that question.

The inspection was undertaken by one pharmacist inspector. Before our inspection we reviewed the information we held about the home, this included the registered provider’s action plan, which set out the action they would take to meet legal requirements.

At the visit to the home we spoke with the registered manager, regional manager, three nurses and one senior care worker. We looked at four people’s care records which included assessments, care plans and risk assessments relating to medicines. We looked at medication administration records on all three communities and saw the storage arrangements for medicines.

Updated 8 October 2015

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 16 July 2014 at which a breach of legal requirements was found. The service continued to be in breach of legal requirements during a comprehensive inspection on 9 and 19 June 2015. Medicines management was not always safe and we found that people did not always receive medicines appropriately. Due to our concerns and the continued breach of legal requirements we issued a warning notice which the provider was required to comply with by 15 August 2015.

We undertook a focused inspection on the 14 September 2015 to check that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to this topic. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for ‘Kew House’ on our website at www.cqc.org.uk. Kew House remains in breach of one other regulation in relation to good governance. They have informed us they will take the necessary action to address that breach by 31 October 2015.

Kew House is registered as a care home for up to 81 adults. It provides accommodation for people who require personal care and nursing. The home was divided into three units across three floors, which were each called ‘a community’. The ground floor was for people with a lower level of needs and who required personal care. There was a dementia community on the middle floor which offered nursing support for people with dementia. The top floor was for older people who required nursing care. At our inspection on 14 September 2015 67 people were using the service.

At our focused inspection on the 14 September 2015, we found the registered provider had followed their plan and legal requirements in relation to medicines management had been met.

We saw that people received their medicines as prescribed. Staff followed safe procedures when administering medicines. The records for some medicines and blood tests had been updated which showed clearly that medicines had been given safely.

Nurses and senior care staff who had responsibility for medicines had received training in the safe handling of medicines.

We saw that people who chose to look after their own medicines were supported to do so safely.