About the service Hillbro is a nursing home providing personal and nursing care to older people and people living with dementia. Hillbro accommodates 43 people in one adapted building. At the time of the inspection there were 42 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were not always safe. Safeguarding procedures were not consistently followed. Robust moving and handling plans were not in place and people were at risk of injury. Audits and checks were in place to monitor the quality of the service. Improvements were required to ensure they highlighted all shortfalls promptly. The registered manager was approachable and visible. The management team were open and honest throughout the inspection and responded promptly to the issues we raised.
Recruitment was managed safely. People were cared for by an experienced and consistent staff team. People who used the service and relatives provided consistent positive feedback about their experiences of the care. One relative said, “The staff are first class; I think they do a good job.” They said the staff team were kind and caring.
The home and grounds were accessible and well maintained.
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 the service was good (published 14 February 2019).
Why we inspected
We undertook this targeted inspection to follow up on specific concerns which we had received about the service. The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about safeguarding concerns. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.
We inspected and found there was a concern with safe care and treatment and reporting safeguarding incidents, so we widened the scope of the inspection to become a focused inspection which included the key questions of safe and well-led.
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 changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report.
The provider took immediate action to mitigate the risks.
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 Hillbro 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 breaches in relation to assessing and managing risks to people, governance and safeguarding people from abuse.
We have identified a breach in relation to failure to notify CQC about significant events.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
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.