Heliosa Nursing Home

Updated 11 June 2021

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out one inspector.

Service and service type

Heliosa Nursing Home (Heliosa) is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service is required to have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

The registered manager’s post was vacant at the time of the inspection. The home was being managed by a temporary manager supported by the registered provider’s Lead Operations Manager.

Notice of inspection

We announced the inspection visit 24 hours before it took place. This was because we needed to give the acting manager time to prepare in advance of our visit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspection activity started on 28 April 2021 and ended on 12 May 2021. We visited the service on 28 April 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and sought feedback from the local authority. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people who used the service and a relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with a visiting health care professional and eight members of staff including the acting manager, the business administrator, the deputy manager/clinical lead nurse, a nurse, three care staff, and the lead operations manager. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We carried out a medications check, looked at the recruitment files for two staff employed since the last inspection and checked financial records for two people.

After the inspection visit

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic we limited the time we spent on site. Therefore, we requested records and documentation to be sent to us and reviewed these following the inspection visit and continued dialogue with the acting manager and lead operations manager by telephone. We reviewed a range of records. These included several people’s care records, assessments and risk assessments. A variety of other records relating to the management of the service were also reviewed. We also spoke with a visiting doctor on the telephone and sought their views on the management of the home and the standard of care provided.

Updated 11 June 2021

About the service

Heliosa Nursing Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 38 people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 40 people in one adapted building across two separate areas, each of which had separate adapted facilities.

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

Required improvements identified at our last inspection had been made, sustained and built upon. Safety and leadership had improved significantly. People received safe and effective care and outcomes were good.

Risks to people’s health, safety and welfare, were identified and managed safely with the involvement of the person or their representatives.

Safeguarding systems, policies and procedures ensured people were safe and protected from abuse.

People told us they felt safe and well cared for and made positive comments about the staff and standard of care. Comments included “They look after me 200% nothing too much trouble”. “I am so well looked after in every way”. A visiting relative said, “We have no doubt (relative) is safe, overall if I were to rate the quality of the care I'd say excellent”.

We were assured by the additional measures in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Risks relating to infection prevention and control (IPC), including in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic were assessed and managed. Staff followed good IPC practices. Safe visiting was supported and enabled. Visitors were invited to take rapid COVID-19 test just before their visit, were provided with appropriate personal protective equipment as in accordance with government guidelines and best practice.

Medicines were safely managed, and systems were in place for reporting accidents and incidents and learning from them.

There were sufficient numbers of suitably trained and experienced staff on duty and safe recruitment procedures were followed. Staff presented as well trained, caring professionals.

The management team and staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities and they promoted a positive, person-centred culture. Staff worked well together as a team, and there was good partnership working with others to meet people's needs.

Effective systems were in place for checking on the quality and safety of the service and making improvements where needed.

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 22 November 2019) and there were two 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

The provider notified us of concerns relating to the management of people’s finances. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Heliosa Nursing Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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.