Enter and view: Carrington House, Central Bedfordshire

Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire conducted an announced Enter and View visit on 17th February 2015 to Carrington House Care Home. The home, which is owned by Hold Care Ltd, has 60 beds providing care for people with dementia and frail older people. Residents as well as several relatives and members of staff were spoken to.

The findings show that at the time of the visit, the home was operating to a good standard of care with regard to dignity and respect with staff interacting with residents positively and regularly including just checking frequently. All the staff, observed speaking to residents, clearly knew them well, using their first names. Residents looked tidy, clean and well cared for. The residents spoken to stated they were comfortable in the home and quite happy. Family members spoke highly of the care afforded to their relatives. The staff appeared to be well trained and representatives were confident the residents were well cared for. Residents spoken to were generally happy with the meals, the menu was balanced and nutritious and mealtimes were suitable for the residents. The residents that representatives spoke to all thought the standard and variety of food served was very good. An activities manager and two activities co-ordinators organise events to involve residents and their relatives as much as possible. High praise was given by relatives and residents regarding the activities co-ordinators, who were observed by the representatives engaging with residents. Representatives recognised that the activities manager is passionate about the wellbeing of the residents and to continually improving their stay at the home. Many new initiatives have been introduced, such as the Christmas carol competition between the three homes in the group, which was conducted over Skype.

This was recognised as innovative and a recommendation was made to expand and promote this good practice across the group of homes. It was also recommended that the report be shared with residents and their relatives to allow them the opportunity to comment further should they wish to do so.

Despite reminders to the service provider, Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire did not receive a response to the report.