19 June 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
St Teresa’s Nursing Home is a residential care home providing regulated activities accommodation for persons requiring nursing or personal care and treatment of disease, disorder or injury to up to 70 people. The service provides support to older people and people with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 60 people using the service.
St Teresa’s incorporates a former nunnery with more modern, purpose built accommodation that is separated into 2 wings: Gainsborough and Bartelt. The service is laid out over 3 floors, bedrooms can be found on each floor, with some offering en-suite facilities. People have access to communal dining and lounging areas, including a recently installed sensory space. There is level access to large, well-stocked gardens and the registered manager’s office is located adjacent to the reception area.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Staff spoke confidently about protecting people from the risk of abuse. There were sufficient numbers of staff to keep people safe and staff received training relevant to people’s needs. Risk assessments were in place and provided guidance for staff. Infection prevention and control measures were implemented, and the service was visibly clean throughout. Overall, medicines were managed safely. In response to our feedback, the provider did implement additional cold storage for medicines and brought forward a planned meeting with an air conditioning technician, with the view of air conditioned medicines storage rooms.
We observed staff being kind and caring to people. People’s equality characteristics were respected, and different cultures were embraced. We observed staff maintaining people’s privacy by knocking on their doors prior to entering.
People were supported to eat and drink sufficiently; the dining experience had improved since our previous inspection. The layout of the premises had been reconfigured to aid the flow of care delivery. People were supported to access healthcare and professionals spoke positively about working with staff. We found people’s support with oral healthcare was inconsistent. The provider responded to our concerns and implemented a dental tracker at the time of our inspection. We did not find people experienced poor outcomes in relation to these inconsistencies. We received mixed comments from people about how consistently staff delivered care to support people’s choices.
People and relatives spoke positively about the registered manager and said they could raise concerns if needed. The provider continued to build relationships with local organisations and volunteers. Statutory notifications were submitted to CQC in line with regulations. Overall, audits and checks were used effectively to identify shortfalls, however we did find gaps in documentation that had not been identified by the provider checks.
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.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update: The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 6 November 2020) and there were 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
We inspected this service in line with current CQC priorities because the provider told us they had made significant improvements to care provision.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Teresa’s Nursing Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendations
We have made one recommendation in relation to the consistency of governance systems.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.