26 October 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Apollo House is a residential care home providing nursing and personal care to up to 61 people. The service provides support to older people and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 56 people using the service.
Apollo House accommodates people across four separate floors, each of which has separate adapted facilities.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Staff knew what signs to look for to keep people safe from harm or abuse. Some staff were unsure how to follow external safeguarding and whistleblowing reporting procedures. We have made a recommendation about developing staff knowledge of external reporting processes.
The systems and processes for identifying risks to people had improved. Further improvements were required to ensure effective management of environmental risks.
Risk assessments were fully completed, and strategies identified to mitigate risks. Care plans were in place where physical intervention may be required to keep people safe, these would benefit from review to ensure they contain more detailed information about people’s needs. People's healthcare needs were recorded and well managed. Records of care tasks were fully completed.
Unexplained injuries were investigated to establish the cause and to protect people from abuse and records of injuries were kept up to date with follow up information.
Medicine management had improved. People received their medicines as prescribed from trained staff.
Staffing levels were appropriate during the inspection, and people told us there were enough staff to meet their needs safely. Staff had received all of the training required to support the people living at Apollo House.
Staff felt supported within their roles and felt confident to discuss any concerns they may have with the management team.
Feedback was sought from people, relatives and staff to identify where improvements were needed. Staff, people and relatives were also offered regular meetings to share information and discuss any concerns they had.
People were protected against infections such as COVID-19. Staff followed government guidance and wore appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). The home appeared clean. Cleaning schedules were in place to evidence when cleaning was completed.
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.
Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service were in place to ensure people received safe and person-centred care. These required time to be embedded in the service to ensure they were sustained and improvements continued.
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 2 June 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations. The service remains rated requires improvement. This is the second time the service has been rated requires improvement.
Why we inspected
This inspection was carried out to check whether the Warning Notices we previously served in relation to Regulations 12(1), 13(1) and 17(1) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this focussed inspection and remains requires improvement.
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.
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 remains requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Apollo House 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.