Enter and view: Briarfields

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

Healthwatch Shropshire visited Briarfields on 20th March 2014.

The key findings highlighted areas in relation to patient feedback, staff feedback and observation. The report informs the visiting team were struck by the way that each resident’s room was clearly personalised to them. Healthwatch Shropshire met a few residents who had hobbies that they were continuing to do at the home. All eight residents asked were able to say that they were involved in their care and had seen their care plans. Residents were not able to articulate many activities that had taken place recently. This may be related to the Activities Coordinator vacancy currently at the home. Residents articulated a trust in the staff, and all of those Healthwatch Shropshire spoke to were able to explain how they would complain if they wished to. One resident also explained they felt the staff were excellent. Unfortunately the visit team did not see a large number of interactions between staff and residents during the visit. Of those Healthwatch Shropshire did see, although we saw some examples of good staff-resident interactions, such as the manager walking the resident around the circular corridor, Healthwatch Shropshire saw a number of incidents where staff were not fully engaging with residents whilst providing care. Including:, staff not interacting with residents whilst doing their nails; what appeared to be a staff member waking a resident up to have his nails cut; and the distressed individual that a staff member seemed reluctant to attend to. We were also concerned by the call bell not being answered.

The recommendations in the report state based on residents’ comments about what range of activities used to take place, Briarfields residents would benefit from having a wider range of stimulating activities available. Although residents seemed generally happy at Briarfields, Healthwatch Shropshire recommend that the home looks into taking action to prevent future occurrences of the passive care we witnessed during the visit. This includes unenthusiastic staff interactions with residents and the failure to answer a call bell. Visitors to Briarfields said they felt welcome but that they are never offered a drink. Briarfields should look at the provision of drinks for visitors.