Enter and view: Alan Morkhill House

Healthwatch Central West London conducted an enter and view visit to Alan Morkhill residential home, located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, on 17 March and 5 June 2017, as part of their ‘Dignity Champions’ visits with the aim to improve people’s experiences of health and social care. Alan Morkhill, which is run by Goldcare homes, had received a CQC report of ‘requires attention’ in May 2017. The key issue found in the previous visit done by HW CWL, in 2012, was that the staff were too busy to carry out their roles and offer the desired level of care.

The team met with the Manager and a staff member in January prior to the visit to the home. The environment in the home was found to be clean and tidy with the décor a little tired and some ceilings showing signs of water stains. The team reported that the home was not an easy environment for older people and people with Dementia to navigate in. HW team found a cleaning trolley with cleaning fluids left unattended which was a health and safety issue. The lack in staff numbers was constantly highlighted it was felt that additional staff or even volunteers would help ‘fully meet residents’ needs. There was great concern about the current manager leaving in 3 months and that there had been 3 Managers since 2015.

Residents commented that it was a long way to the dining room for them and even staff said they did not understand the policy of asking people to leave the dining room after they had eaten and move to the lounge which was at the other end of the corridor. The residents said they found the staff very kind and caring and the food “really good”. They all enjoyed the activities but found them limiting. Not having a routine visit form a GP was of concern too.

HW CWL made a few recommendations with a potential time frame to take action in. These included review of staffing, implementation of a Dementia plan with specialist training for all the staff and creating a Dementia friendly environment and checking for damp in the bedrooms. No response was provided from the home.