Enter and View: Swarthdale Nursing Home

Healthwatch Cumbria conducted an Enter and View on Swarthdale Nursing Home, a privately owned nursing home. The visit was conducted on 02nd March 2017.

The visit was arranged as part of Healthwatch Cumbria's enter and view schedule.

Observation by the enter and view representatives reported that:

The building in general was clean, well mainyained and welcoming but some of the communal corridors upstairs that HWC saw were untidy with stains on the carpet and general debris e.g. crumbs, leaves from outdoors that needed cleaning away.

Residents had good access to health care services and there was an activities coordinator who arranged activities for the residents.

The lay out of the residents lounge was such so as to encourage residents to interact with one another, chairs were facing each other and the television did not dominate the area The atmosphere was calm and staff clearly knew the residents on an individual basis.

There was a rabbit in the residents lounge (in a clean caged area) that residents were interacting with. The home also has a dog that the residents said they enjoy and a stocked fish tank. The addition of home pets was viewed positively by the residents.

Residents, in general were happy with the food provided which was varied and residents could also request meals.

A meadow flower corridor wall was provided which is a tactile wall display designed specifically for dementia residents in keeping with David Sheard’s ‘Dementia Care Matters’ philosophy.

Recommendations were made by Healthwatch Cumbria - the nursing home manager disagreed with the recommendations.