21 June 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Queens Meadow Care Home provides personal care for up to 59 people, some of whom are living with dementia. At the time of the inspection there were 54 people living in the home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People felt safe living in the home. People spoke fondly of the staff. Comments included, “I absolutely love [care staff], they always look after me and know what I need" and, “They do try to look after me. They kid on with me and I like that.” Staff did not always manage people’s medicines effectively. The provider had made some improvements to medicines management. However, further developments were needed to ensure the safe management of medicines. We have made a recommendation about this.
People were safeguarded from abuse. Risks to individuals and the environment were managed. There were generally enough staff to meet people’s needs. The provider learned from accidents and incidents to mitigate future risks. Infection control processes were embedded into the service and staff followed government guidance in relation to infection control and prevention practices, in particular, relating to COVID-19.
People’s needs were assessed before they moved into the home and on an ongoing basis. Staff were suitably trained and received regular supervisions. People were supported with their nutritional needs and to access a range of health care professionals. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives, and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
A new manager had been recruited and was working their notice in another role at the time of the inspection. There was an interim manager in post who had worked in the home for over 15 years as the deputy manager. They were being supported by the regional manager and interim deputy manager. The atmosphere in the home was calm and relaxed. The provider had quality assurance processes in place which included regular audits by management in the home as well as the regional manager. People and relatives were regularly consulted about the quality of the service through surveys, meetings and reviews.
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 21 November 2018).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to medicines management, governance and the overall management of the home. As a result, we decided to undertake a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
During the inspection we found areas of potential concern relating to nutrition and hydration and staff training. We therefore decided to also inspect the key question effective.
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. 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.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report.
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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Queens Meadow Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.