Garth House

Updated 23 September 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Garth House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Garth House is a care home with nursing care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. A new manager had been recruited and had submitted their application to register with CQC.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed information we had about the service. This included notification of accidents, incidents or safeguarding concerns. We also sought the feedback of health and social care professionals who had knowledge of the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people and two relatives to obtain their views on the service. We carried out observations of the interaction between staff and people as some people were unable to speak with us. We spoke with eight staff, which included the manager, regional quality lead, clinical and non-clinical staff.

We reviewed a range of records which included five peoples care plans in full and a further three to look at specific areas relating to their care needs. We looked at medication records and five staff files in relation to recruitment. We reviewed accident, incident and safeguarding processes, meeting minutes, and a variety of records relating to the management of the service. Following the inspection, we received further information from the manager that we had requested and received feedback from two relatives and two professionals.

Updated 23 September 2022

About the service

Garth House is a residential care home providing nursing care to up to maximum of 46 people. Some people living at Garth House were living with dementia whilst others were living with long term health conditions. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people using the service.

Garth House is a converted house with accommodation over three floors. There is a lift connecting all floors and extensive grounds that people can access. At the time of our inspection, no one was residing on the top floor.

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

People were able to have visitors whenever they wished and we saw relatives coming to see their family member during our inspection. Relative’s told us communication was good between the service and themselves and they had no concerns at all.

People said they were happy living at Garth House and felt safe. They said there were sufficient staff around and staff treated them with kindness and care. People were cared for by staff who had gone through a robust recruitment process.

Staff helped people remain safe and free from harm as they had identified risks and taken action to respond to them. People were provided with appropriate equipment to help them avoid injury and where accidents and incidents occurred management learnt from these.

People received the medicines they required as well as food prepared appropriately to help ensure they had sufficient food and drink in a safe way. People lived in an environment that was clean and hygienic and staff and visitors were seen wearing personal protective equipment in line with government guidance.

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.

There was good communication between the service, people, relatives and staff. Relatives felt listened to and management took action to resolve any concerns they raised. People were encouraged to give their feedback around the food and the care they received and staff were also invited to share ideas.

Staff felt supported and valued by management and enjoyed their roles. They were being encouraged to progress and the manager had a vision for the future on how she wished Garth House to be perceived by people.

Through good governance arrangements and strong management oversight, people received a good level of service.

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 Good (report published 5 March 2019). We also carried out an infection protection and control inspection in February 2021 (report published April 2021).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted, in part, due to concerns received about the provider’s approach to visiting, responding to concerns and risk of a closed culture. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine the concerns across a range of Caring Homes services. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-led only.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the Safe section of this full report.

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.

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 remained 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 Garth House 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.