Garden House Hospice

Updated 19 July 2022

Garden House Hospice is registered to provide diagnostic and screening procedures, personal care, and treatment of disease, disorder and injury. At the time of the inspection there was an application in progress for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to become the Registered Manager.

The service was last inspected in March 2016, when it received a rating of good.

The service provides free specialist and holistic palliative and end of life care for adults with life limiting illness and their relatives and carers in North Hertfordshire, Stevenage and parts of Central Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. There is an inpatient unit that could care for up to 12 patients, but was currently able to provide six beds. There were two inpatients at the time of the inspection. The service also provided day services which included rehabilitation, wellbeing and outpatient appointments, and community services in the form of Hospice at Home. There were family services that provided emotional, psychological and practical support to families and friends. The service offered support for children and young people who were bereaved or lived with an adult with a serious condition. In addition, the service ran a 24 hour palliative care advice line for patients, carers and healthcare professionals. There were a variety of staff employed at the service to deliver care, which included doctors, nurses, a pharmacist, a social worker, counsellors and therapists.

Updated 19 July 2022

Our rating of this location stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.
• Staff provided good care and treatment, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• Managers did not always ensure that actions from patient safety alerts were implemented and monitored.
• The service used systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines, but there were improvements that could be made.

Updated 19 July 2022

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

Refer to the overall summary above.