St Ronans Nursing and Residential Care Home

Updated 3 February 2021

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.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe, and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 25 January 2021 and was announced.

Updated 3 February 2021

About the service

St Ronans Nursing and Residential Care Home is registered to provide accommodation and nursing care for up to 46 people, including people living with cognitive impairments and physical needs. There were 42 people living at the home at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People and their families had mixed views on the staffing levels in the home. However, we found during the inspection there were sufficient staff to meet people's needs. Staff had the opportunity to interact with people in a relaxed and unhurried manner and respond to people’s needs in a timely way. Recruitment checks were carried out before new staff started working at the service.

There were suitable systems in place to ensure that medicines were securely stored, ordered and disposed of correctly and safely and people received their medicines as prescribed. However, some areas of medicine management required more robust systems to be put in place to ensure the management of medicines remained safe.

There were clear processes in place to monitor risks to people which helped to ensure they received effective care to maintain their safety and wellbeing. People were protected from avoidable harm and infection control risks were managed appropriately. Systems were in place to monitor incidents, accidents and near misses. These were recorded, acted upon and analysed to identified themes and trends. Where these were noted, actions were taken in a timely way.

People were supported to access health and social care professionals if needed, received enough to eat and drink and were happy with the food provided. Staff had received appropriate training and support to enable them to carry out their role effectively. They received regular supervision to help develop their skills and support them in their role.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People said that the staff were caring and kind and that they were treated with dignity and respect. Staff’s knowledge of people’s history, preferences and risks associated with their care and support needs was good. People were involved in planning their care and the support they received. Care plans contained detailed personal information about how people wished their care to be provided.

The service had a strong focus on inclusion and the prevention of social isolation and offered people a range of personalised activities.

The management team were open and transparent. They understood their regulatory responsibilities. People and their relatives said the management team were open, approachable and supportive. Everyone was confident the management team would take the necessary actions to address any concerns promptly. There were effective governance systems in place to identify concerns in the service and drive improvement.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published August 2018) and there were three breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

There is no required follow up to this inspection. We will continue to monitor all information received about the service to understand any risks that may arise and to ensure the next inspection is scheduled accordingly.