Enter and view: Meadowbrook Care Home

Healthwatch Shropshire conducted an Enter and View visit. This is a way of ensuring that all services delivered are acceptable and the welfare of the resident, patient or other service-user is not compromised in any way.

Healthwatch Shropshire visited Meadowbrook Care Home, on 01/10/2015.

The summary of findings highlighted areas in relation to patient feedback, staff feedback and observation. These findings include Several residents in the Neurodisability unit (Huntercombe) said they were very satisfied with the care they receive. During our visit there was discreet but supportive supervision of and interaction with residents in the Dementia Unit. A number of activities are provided in each unit and visitors are welcomed into the family atmosphere. However, the programme of activities in the Dementia Unit did not appear to be specifically tailored to meet the needs of this group. Many residents were not able to express choices or influence their daily routine, but we did see bedrooms with personal mementoes. Healthwatch learned that efforts are being made to widen menu choices after comments from residents. During the visit Healthwatch observed that some residents in the Older Persons Unit were unsupervised or not attended to for periods of time. Visitors told Healthwatch the staff in the Older Persons Unit often appeared under stress and had little time for social interaction with the residents. The visitors felt that the staff needed more support from the management.

The recommendations within the report are activities could be better tailored to suit the needs of residents with dementia. Better support should be given by management to the team working on the Older Persons Unit. Apparent staffing shortages need to be addressed to allow staff to give appropriate levels of care in the nursing units. Regular support, reviews, appraisal and demonstration of appreciation of staff should be introduced.