St Bernadettes Nursing Home

Updated 18 March 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 (IPC) 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 22 January 2021 and was announced.

Updated 18 March 2021

About the service

St Bernadettes is a care home, which provided personal and nursing care to 18 people aged 55 and over at the time of the inspection. The service is registered to accommodate a maximum of 27 people.

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

People and visitors said there had been improvements to the cleanliness of the service, the number of staff on duty was more consistent and they felt safe in the service.

All areas were tidy and there was sufficient cleaning taking place to keep people safe from the risk of infection.

The provider followed robust recruitment checks, and sufficient staff were employed to ensure people's needs were met.

Medicines were managed safely and people said they received them on time and when needed.

The uptake and completion of staff training had improved, and staff had started to receive regular support and supervision.

Communication with families had improved and we received positive feedback from relatives, which indicated this was now consistent and effective.

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 ate nutritious, well cooked food, and said they enjoyed their meals. The monitoring of people’s nutritional intake and weight loss had improved. Their health needs were identified, and staff worked with other professionals to ensure these needs were met.

Care plans and risk assessments had all been reviewed and updated. Staff were more aware of people’s changing needs and amended their care records accordingly.

People were involved in all aspects of their care and were asked for their consent before staff undertook support tasks.

Activities within the service had improved. People said they enjoyed the entertainment and activity sessions provided. There were group activities and one to one input with individuals on a regular basis.

The recruitment of a new manager had resulted in significant improvement around leadership, oversight and management within the service. People and staff said the registered manager was open, honest and approachable. The quality assurance and monitoring processes within the service were thorough and the service had moved forward. The assessment, monitoring and mitigation of risk towards people who used the service had improved. This meant risks to people's health and safety were reduced.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 5 February 2019) and there were multiple 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. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.