Archived: Sun Court Nursing Home

Updated 7 June 2018

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 4 April 2018 and was unannounced.

The inspection team consisted of two CQC inspectors and one expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also looked at information we held about the service, including previous inspection reports and statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to send us by law. We also received feedback at meetings we attended about the service from the local authority and safeguarding team.

During the inspection we spoke with five people who lived in the home. Due to the healthcare conditions that people were living with, some people were unable to tell us about their care. We observed care and support being delivered in communal areas and we also spoke with the relatives of three people and eleven members of care staff including the providers and deputy manager.

We reviewed four people’s care plans in detail and looked at four people’s medicine administration records (MAR) and the medicines management procedures in place. We looked at two staff recruitment files as well as training, induction, supervision and appraisal records. We also viewed a range of monitoring reports and audits undertaken by the registered manager and other senior members of staff.

Updated 7 June 2018

The inspection took place on 4 April 2018 and was unannounced.

Sun Court Nursing Home is a ‘care home’ with nursing. 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.

Sun Court Nursing Home provides accommodation and nursing care to a maximum of 29 people. At the time of the inspection 27 people were living at the home.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. 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. The registered manager was on leave at the time of the inspection, but we met with the registered providers and deputy manager.

At our last comprehensive inspection on 20 August and 1 September 2016 we found that the service was not meeting the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The provider was in breach of the regulations for good governance. Following the inspection, the provider sent us an action plan telling us how they would make the improvements needed. During this inspection the service demonstrated to us that improvements had been made and is no longer in breach of the regulation.

Improvements included use of an external auditing company and the ground floor clinic room, described in the previous inspection report as the ‘nurse’s station’, was now partitioned off with a concertina door to improve security of medicines related paperwork, and longer term the service planned to install a permanent structure to separate this area from the main hallway.

Since the last inspection, greater emphasis has been placed on safe storage of people's records, with use of wall fixed document holders to enable care plans to be stored in people’s bedrooms rather than in communal areas, as identified during the last inspection.

Each person had detailed risk assessments and care plans in place, including personalised evacuation plans and management of individual risks such as skin care and swallowing risks.

Staffing levels reflected the use of a dependency tool, identifying the need for higher staffing levels in the morning to complete personal care routines.

Staff approach and people’s records demonstrated adherence to the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

People had choice of food and fluids, with value placed on nutrition and food quality.

Staff treated people with care and compassion, and took pride in their caring roles. Staff understood how to identify and report safeguarding concerns.

People accessed activities in the local community, maintained their spiritual wellbeing and spent time with relatives and friends.

People and their relatives knew how to make a complaint, and were encouraged to give feedback to the manager and providers.

The service provided a good standard of care to people who required support with complex health needs and those approaching the end of their life.

The service had governance processes in place for monitoring standards and quality of care provided, this included completion of regular clinical audits in areas such as medicines management and infection prevention control. The provider encouraged people and their relatives to give feedback on the service, and areas of improvement.