Enter and view: Hillesden House Care Home, Staffordshire

Healthwatch Staffordshire conducted an Enter and View visit on Hillesden House Care Home, a residential home with 21 places caring for adults over 65 years old, on 30th October 2017.

The purpose of the visit was to follow up on the CQC visit which had highlighted some areas as requiring improvement – specifically:

- residents not always receiving support when needed;

- medicines not being stored safely;

- incomplete documentation of decision-making process in patient records;

- time pressures on staff affecting ability to provide caring support;

- effectiveness of systems to monitor quality of service provided.

Observation by the Enter and View representatives reported:

- the driveway to the home is masked by large trees; the home itself is a lovely, large old house;

- internally the furnishings are in excellent condition, corridors are clutter-free, there were no odours, the lounge and dining room windows need replacing;

- staff provide personal care and knock before entering the room; a hairdresser and chiropodist visit the home;

- careplans are compiled with residents, relatives and social care;

- management advised that DoLs assessments are up to date;

- relatives can visit anytime, there are no meetings with relatives;

- there is an Activity Coordinator at the home who takes residents for walks and shopping;

- menus are displayed on a board with illustrations and there is a choice of 2 hot meals;

- a staff training matrix is kept, training is a mixture of in-house and distance training, first aid training is provided by an external trainer;

- staff advised that the CQC issue regarding storage of medicines has been resolved – the medicine storage room is secure, and the medicine trolley is secured to the wall when not in use;

- the owner and manager advised that systems had been put in place to evidence good governance;

- overall the home seemed like a very happy place to be.

Residents commented that:

- they were happy with the care they received;

- there were no issues with waiting for the attention they needed;

- the food was lovely.

Relatives commented that they were happy with the care provided.

Staff commented that:

- they were happy in their work and felt supported by management;

- they knew the procedure to report complaints, accidents, abuse.

The report recommended:

- the trees blocking light into some bedrooms be cut back;

- the ongoing maintenance programme includes the replacement of windows that need repairing in the near future.

There was no provider response in the report.