24 June 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
The Chimes Residential Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 44 people aged 65 and over. The home supports people living with dementia, mental health conditions, physical disability and sensory impairment.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We have identified areas where the provider needs to make improvements to ensure people are in receipt of good quality care.
People had not always been supported by staff who had been safely recruited. Staff recruitment checks were not always completed in a timely way and gaps in employment history were not always explored and documented. We have made a recommendation about recruitment processes.
The provider was not following current government guidance relating to infection, prevention and control for COVID-19. Staff and managers did not always follow current best practice to ensure cross infection was minimised at all times.
Improvement was needed in the provider’s governance systems to ensure they kept up to date with national government guidance. Records relating to the home’s environment needed to be organised so they were easily available and audit trails made clearer.
Visits had commenced following the changes in government guidelines and relatives were screened for symptoms of COVID-19 before visiting their family members. People and staff had access to COVID-19 testing.
The provider had made improvements since our previous inspection to ensure the monitoring of when people were repositioned was recorded. Risks to people were identified and plans were in place to help staff manage and help reduce the risks. Staff knew how to support people safely and were attentive to their needs. People received their medicine when they needed them. People were supported by sufficient numbers of staff and staff knew how to raise concerns in relation to people’s safety or abuse.
People and staff told us the registered manager was approachable and they were supported in their roles. The registered manager was aware of their duty of candour and worked in partnership with other organisations for the benefit of the people who lived at The Chimes Residential Home.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 13 January 2021). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last three consecutive inspections.
Why we inspected
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.
We had received concerns in relation to the management of medicines, the cleanliness of the home and how the home was being managed. 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. 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 remained requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. However, we have found evidence the provider needs to make improvement in other areas. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Chimes Residential Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified two breaches in relation to the provider’s governance of the home and infection control practices.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.