Archived: Penmeneth House

Updated 23 February 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 23 January 2017. This was an unannounced inspection which meant the staff and provider did not know we would be visiting. The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

The inspection was to review what action had been taken to meet the breach in regulation identified during the comprehensive inspection completed in May 2016.

Before the inspection we reviewed the action plan provided by the service following the last inspection, previous inspection reports and other information we held about the service. We also looked at notifications we had received from the service. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law.

During the inspection we spoke with registered provider, and other senior managers of the service. We inspected two records relating to the care of individuals, the medicines system and records relating to the running of the service.

Updated 23 February 2017

Penmeneth House is a care home which provides accommodation for up to 14 older people who require personal care. At the time of the inspection 14 people were using the service. Some of the people who lived at Penmeneth House needed care and support due to dementia and some people had sensory and /or physical disabilities.

There was a registered manager at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

We previously carried out a comprehensive inspection of 31 May 2016. At that inspection we identified one breach of the legal requirements. This related to the assessment of risks to the health and safety of people who used the service, and the registered provider taking suitable steps to mitigate these risks. We subsequently issued one requirement and told the provider to take action to address the breach of the regulations. The provider sent the Care Quality Commission an action plan following the publication of the report.

We carried out this focused inspection to check to see if the service had made the required improvements identified at that comprehensive inspection.

This report only covers our findings in relation to these topics. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Penmeneth House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

During this inspection we spoke with the registered manager, and other senior staff to check actions taken since the last inspection. We were told people’s risk assessments had been reviewed, for example, if people were at risk of falling. We were also told the temperature of hot water was controlled and the registered provider was in the process of fitting thermostatic valves to basins in people’s bedrooms and in bathrooms. This was to minimise any risk of scalding. Lastly we were told suitable checks were being completed to ensure medicines errors did not occur due to how medicine administration instructions were recorded. We subsequently checked relevant documentation and this was to a suitable standard. We therefore judged satisfactory action had been taken regarding the action we asked the provider to take.

We could not improve the rating for the question ‘Is it Safe’ from 'requires improvement' because to do so requires the service to demonstrate consistent good practice over time. We will review the rating during our next planned comprehensive inspection.