Enter and view, Wickwar Care Home, South Gloucestershire

Healthwatch South Gloucestershire conducted an Enter and View revisit to Wickwar Care Home, on 9th November 2016, as part of a series of follow-up visits to Care Homes. Healthwatch representatives had visited Wickwar Care Home in March/April 2016, and a number of recommendations for improvements were made. Since then no response had been received from the management about these suggestions, which led to this revisit in November to find out whether Wickwar Care Home had taken note of the observations and recommendations.

Wickwar Care Home delivers care to frail and elderly people with a wide range of nursing needs. The latest CQC report about Wickwar Care Home in April 2015 rated the home as ‘requires improvement’.

As this was a revisit the Enter and View representatives particularly wanted to observe what changes had been made since the earlier visits as it was evident back in March that new management was in place and there were plans to make changes. HWSG were pleased to see that a programme of refurbishment was taking place, albeit very gradually. Some efforts had been made to increase activities for residents and, with a smaller number of residents, these were more easily managed on a one to one basis.

The report shows Wickwar Care Home was certainly making improvements worth commending. Some of the changes, whether to décor or regarding activities, were decided upon or requested by the residents, as a result the management was allowing the rate of change to be slower than it could be. E&V representatives recommended that Wickwar Care Home press ahead with the refurbishment process without delays and that residents should be encouraged to understand that all changes made are for their benefit. The progress need not be slowed down to manage any perceived sensitivities.