Archived: Shire Hill Intermediate Care Unit

Updated 15 January 2016

Shire Hill Intermediate Care Unit is a 36 bedded unit situated in Glossop and offers inpatient rehabilitation services to patients over the age of 18 in the Tameside and Glossop areas. Care is delivered over two inpatient units; the Ludworth and Charlesworth units. These units are situated in the same building on two separate floors.

Rehabilitation services are provided by a team of nurses, general practitioners and therapists. Occupational therapy and physiotherapy are available on the inpatient units.

Updated 15 January 2016

We undertook this unannounced inspection of Shire Hill Intermediate Care Unit as a follow up to our previous inspection which took place on 22nd September 2015. The inspection we undertook on 22nd September was in response to concerns that were raised with us. Shire Hill Intermediate Care Unit is a 36 bedded unit situated in Glossop and offers inpatient rehabilitation services to patients over the age of 18 in the Tameside and Glossop areas. Care is delivered over two inpatient units; the Ludworth and Charlesworth units. These units are situated in the same building on two separate floors.

We inspected the unit during the evening of 18th November 2015. We visited the following areas:

• Ludworth Unit
• Charlesworth Unit

Our key findings were as follows:

We found that patients at Shire Hill Intermediate Care Unit were receiving timely and appropriate care during our visit. Nurse staffing levels had improved since our last inspection. There were still periods of understaffing however we found evidence that senior managers had taken appropriate steps to try to address periods of understaffing. These steps included offering staff that work at the unit extra shifts and the increased use of agency staff to mitigate last minute absences.

During our last inspection we found evidence that although an early warning score system was used on both units to identify patients who were at risk of deterioration, staff were not applying this system correctly in some cases. During this follow up inspection we found that staff were still not applying the system in some cases and were not undertaking observations of patients at the correct frequency.

During our last inspection we found that patient records were not stored securely and some records lacked important information. During this follow up inspection we found that patient’s records were securely stored in a locked room. We also found that some records still lacked important information and contained some discrepancies.

During our last inspection we found that some patients experienced a delay in receiving their medication including pain relief and the section regarding the recording of allergies was not completed in some records. During this follow up inspection we found that patients were receiving their medications in a timely way and all medication charts reviewed, contained the appropriate allergy information.

There were still some issues of concern on both units regarding the standard of checks made on equipment.

Infection control processes and procedures were in place.

Medical staffing on the unit was adequate to ensure patients received timely and safe care. Staff were able to access medical advice when they needed to.

Importantly, the trust should:

• Continue to ensure that staff undertake and record patient observations consistently and accurately.
• Ensure that equipment is checked thoroughly on a regular basis.
• Remove out of date resuscitation guidance and policies and ensure staff have access to up to date guidelines and policies on resuscitation.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals