Enter and View: West View Lodge

On 27th January 2025 Healthwatch Hartlepool conducted an Enter and View visit to West View Lodge. The visit focused specifically on the care, support and wellbeing of residents at West View Lodge in both the residential and reablement/intermediate care sections of the home. This included discussions with residents, family members and staff as well as observations by members of the visiting team.

West View Lodge is situated in a residential area in the north of Hartlepool. It is a purpose built building and has 74 bedrooms (some en-suite), 54 of which are for long stay residents including people living with dementia, people aged over 65 and people with a wide range of physical disabilities. The remaining 20 beds provide intermediary services on a short term basis for people who need rehabilitation following a stay in hospital or an illness or crisis in their own home.

The report makes several recommendations.

• West View Lodge is not a suitable location for people with drug/alcohol dependency issues and no further placements of this type should be made.
• Placement planning for college students should be improved, including exploring the possibility of manual handling training, in order to add value and increase learning opportunities to the placement experience.
• More pertinent dialogue required with North Tees and Hartlepool Hospital Trust staff, regarding information around essential care requirements of patients who are discharged to Intermediate care service at West View lodge.
• Look into the possibility of allowing Church services/masses to be zoomed into the building for those who would like to attend a service/mass.
• Check communal toilets more frequently, for cleanliness, especially after what seemed to be excessive use of one particular toilet by a resident, whilst we were on the premises.
• Progress the development of a monthly newsletter to further enhance communication with residents and their families.
• Safety equipment should always be returned to designated storage areas and not left in communal settings such as dining rooms.
• Water dispensers in dining rooms to be filled and ready for use, with cups available.