Enter and view: Amberley Court Nursing Home

Healthwatch Birmingham conducted an Enter and View visit to Amberley Court Nursing Home, a residential nursing home with 62 beds. The service has 15 Enhanced Assessment Beds (EAB). These beds are allocated to people who have been discharged from hospital but are in need of extra support before they return home. The aim of the visit was to listen to residents' views of their care, focusing particularly on how the staff obtain and use residents' feedback; and to help the organisations that fund and regulate social care in Birmingham to understand residents' perspectives of the care provided at Amberley Court, particularly whether residents feel that the staff treat them with dignity and respect.

Key findings from interviews with residents included that: most of the residents spoken to felt that residents' meetings rarely resulted in staff taking action; although some residents said they felt listened to, many did not; and some residents were happy with the standard of care and their quality life at Amberley Court, however others were not satisfied. Healthwatch BIrmingham observations included: staff interactions with residents depended on the individual member of staff (and their relationship with the resident), some were warm, friendly, caring, talked to, smiled and listened to the residents and

were considerate of their needs, and others appeared more distant and less empathetic; staff addressed residents by name; eye contact and tone of voice were mostly good; most staff were welcoming

to visitors and treated each other with respect; and most appeared caring and patient despite a heavy workload.

The report includes a response from the Manager at Amberley Court. The Manager was invited to respond to a draft of the report with an action plan. They requested an amendment to the report, which is included at the end of the document. The Manager’s response did not address any of the other feedback provided by residents of Amberley Court.