Enter and view: Hillyard House

Healthwatch Lambeth gather information on people’s experiences of health and social care services and there are times when it is appropriate for Healthwatch Lambeth to see and hear for themselves how services are being delivered: these visits are called ‘Enter and View’, they are not inspections.

Healthwatch Lambeth visited Hillyard House in Friday 16 January 2015.

The summary of findings highlighted areas in relation to patient feedback, staff feedback and observation. Healthwatch Lambeth visiting team found that tenants and most of their relatives believe that people living at Hillyard House are safe and appear satisfied with the care they receive. Hillyard House appears to be well managed, with the built environment and the care we observed generally of good quality. The Activities Co-ordinator demonstrated kindness and an understanding of the residents. However, we are concerned that the overall delivery of care services to tenants can be impacted by unaccountable delays in needs assessment processes. Where residents’ needs change, there does not appear to be any accountability to service users, their families or the care provider on how long they have to wait before a decision is made about a resident’s changed circumstances. There does not appear to be any monitoring or oversight of these delays and why they have taken place.

Healthwatch Lambeth recommend consideration should be given to ways to enhance the hallway to encourage tenants to use the communal space to sit, chat and engage with passers-by. Signs should be raised to 4ft and toilet doors could be identified by a picture graphic as well as words, in line with PLACE guidance. Sanctuary should discuss with Lambeth Council Adult Services a way to resolve unnecessary delays to the reassessment of tenants’ care needs. Where delays occur, a written record of the reasons and length of the delay should be recorded and made available to the tenant. It is unclear to us how frequent the problems with incoming telephone calls to Hillyard House are. Sanctuary should seek the views of the relatives and other frequent callers to assess this issue, including checking the capacity of the phone system. Alternatives to the TV should be provided in the lounge, such as books, magazines, newspapers, games and a radio, to offer choice and encourage tenants to use the lounge when activities aren’t being run. Consideration should be given to the potential to run joint outings with other schemes nearby, particularly for more mobile tenants who don’t require wheelchair accessible transport. Information should be made available to tenants about local community facilities and faith groups. Where tenants have difficulties attending a faith service, with their consent, they should be assisted to make contact with the faith group to find out about alternative arrangements.