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Virtus Care LTD

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

58 Lancaster Road, London, W11 1QR 07725 980827

Provided and run by:
VIRTUS CARE LTD

All Inspections

21 April 2022

During an inspection looking at part of the service

About the service

Virtus Care LTD is a domiciliary care agency. At the time of the inspection, the service was providing support to five people. CQC only inspects services where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People's experience of using this service and what we found

During this inspection we found the service had made improvements around the management of risks and quality assurance.

People told us they felt safe and trusted the staff providing care and support. People received help and support from a consistent and professional staff team.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and the provider supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the application of the policies and systems supported good practice.

The provider assessed the risks associated with people’s care and support needs and staff members were knowledgeable about these risks and knew what to do to minimise any potential for harm.

Risk assessments were reviewed when changes to people's health occurred and the provider worked in partnership with other health and social care professionals to optimise people's health, care and well-being.

People received safe support with their medicines by staff members who had been trained and assessed as competent to provide this support where it formed part of an agreed package of care.

Staff followed effective infection prevention and control procedures and had access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

Safe recruitment processes were being followed to ensure staff were suitable for their roles.

The provider operated effective quality monitoring systems and sought feedback from people using the service, family members, staff and healthcare professionals in order to continually improve standards of care.

The provider had policies and procedures in place including an appropriate complaints procedure.

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 (27 August 2019). At the time, we found a breach of regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) and made a recommendation in relation to the development and implementation of robust quality assurance systems. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced focused inspection of this service on 21 April 2022 to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Virtus Care LTD on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

1 August 2019

During a routine inspection

About the service

Virtus is a domiciliary care agency. At the time of the inspection, the service was providing support to one person.

CQC only inspects services where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Risk assessments were not always identifying the more complex aspects of people’s care or being reviewed when changes to people’s health occurred.

Despite the above shortfall, people told us they felt safe and trusted the staff providing care and support.

People's care plans were person-centred and their choices were respected in relation to all aspects of their care.

Staff supported people to do the things they wanted to do and promoted people's independence where appropriate.

Staff supported people to take their medicines safely where this formed part of an agreed package of care.

People's privacy and dignity was maintained.

The provider met people's nutritional needs.

The service worked in partnership with other professionals to optimise people’s health and well-being.

The provider had policies and procedures in place including an appropriate complaints procedure.

Safe recruitment processes were being followed to ensure staff were suitable for their roles.

The provider had quality monitoring systems in place but these were not always identifying the shortfalls we found during our visit.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service registered with us on 14 September 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach of the regulations in relation to safe care and treatment at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We have made a recommendation in relation to governance of the service and told the provider they must take action to improve the service. We will ask the provider to send a report of actions on how they will make changes to ensure the service improves their rating to at least Good.