Oakwood House Residential and Nursing Home

Updated 7 October 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted as part of our Thematic Review of infection control and prevention in care homes.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and a specialist advisor.

Service and service type

Oakwood House Residential and Nursing Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service one hours’ notice of our inspection. This was to check if there were any infection control issues, we needed to address prior to visiting.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person living in the service other people were not able to speak with us about their care and support. We carried out observations of the care and support provided. We spoke with seven members of staff including the registered manager, nursing staff, care workers and the activities co-ordinator.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and multiple medication records.

After the inspection

We spoke with three relatives and a health care professional. We requested and received from the registered manager information regarding the management of the service. These included health and safety records, audits and quality assurance records.

Updated 7 October 2020

About the service

Oakwood House is a purpose-built residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 24 people. There were 23 people living in the service on the day of our inspection visit as one person was in hospital.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People living in the service were supported in a clean and safe environment. There were sufficient suitably trained staff to provide safe care and support. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding safeguarding and safeguarding concerns were dealt with appropriately. Medicines were managed safely, and people received their medicines as prescribed. There were appropriate infection control measures in place which had been enhanced in response to the COVID pandemic. Where things went wrong incidents were investigated and lessons learnt.

Since our previous inspection in October 2019 care plans had been rewritten and contained sufficient information for staff to provide effective care and support. We fed back to the registered manager areas for further development including more detailed moving and handling plans specifically for those exhibiting distressed behaviour. The registered manager had already identified some of the concerns raised and was taking action.

People received enough to eat and drink. Where required support was requested from appropriate health care professionals. However, we found that the meal time experience could be improved to ensure people received their choice of food and enjoyed the mealtime experience.

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.

The service worked well with other healthcare professionals and was working on developing these relationships further.

We received positive feedback from relatives regarding the way care and support was provided to people. We observed mainly caring and respectful interactions between people and staff.

People were supported, as far as possible during the COVID pandemic, to access the local community and engage in meaningful activities. They were supported to maintain contact with family and friends by video calls. Visits from family were taking place in the service garden.

Since our previous inspection new audits and quality assurance measures have been put in place. These had resulted in significant improvements to the quality of the service provided. These now need to become embedded to ensure improvements continue and is sustained.

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 Inadequate (published 12 November 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. 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

This service has been in Special Measures since November 2019. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.