Enter and view: Care Home - County Homes

Healthwatch Wirral conducted an announced Enter and View visit to County Homes, which provides dementia nursing care for up to 82 people, on 19th January 2016.

At the time of the visit there were refurbishments taking place. Despite the amount of building work being carried out, all areas were clean and tidy. The home staffing levels were sufficient, and they avoided using agency staff. The team were informed that the home used the Datix system to monitor and record complaints onto the computer. The complaints procedure was known to staff, residents and realtives. Relative meetings and surveys were used to capture feedback and to monitor quality.

Healthwatch Wirral representatives were impressed by the caring attitudes of the management and staff, and residents appeared to be well cared for, happy and contented, with a selection of menu choices given for meals. They felt the home was very secure for the safety of residents.

The team did feel that the home at the current stage of refurbishment did not display a ‘Dementia Friendly’ environment.

Recommendations were made by Healthwatch for the home to continue to obtain feedback from residents, staff and visitors which will help to monitor the quality of the service provided and try to include a ‘Dementia Friendly’ environment in the schedule of refurbishment. They also recommended to reinstate signage to advise people to wash their hands particularly in view of recent Norovirus outbreaks in the community.

The provider responded to the recommendations with further explanations and invited Healthwatch to the home once the refurbishments were finalised.