About the service Bennetts Castle Care Centre is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 64 people. The service provides support to older people living with dementia and with nursing care needs. At the time of our inspection there were 59 people using the service. The service is a purpose built care home over three floors, with care being provided on the ground and first floors.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Risk assessments were not always in place for people’s health conditions, in relation to diabetes and seizures. We found some concerns with the way medicines were managed. For example, medicine stock balances were not all correct and there was not always guidance in place about when to administer ‘as required’ (PRN) medicines. Quality assurance and monitoring systems were not always effective.
Systems were in place to help protect people from the risk of abuse. There were enough staff working at the service and the provider had robust staff recruitment practices in place. Accidents and incidents were reviewed and analysed to help reduce the risk of further such occurrences. Steps had been taken to ensure the premises were safe. Infection prevention and control measures were in place.
People and staff told us there was an open and positive culture at the service. People were supported to express their views. The provider was aware of their legal obligations, and worked with other agencies to develop best practice and share knowledge.
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 (published 13 September 2018).
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding.
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 changed from Good to Requires Improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe and Well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bennetts Castle Care Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to assessing risks related to diabetes and seizure, the management of medicines and the quality assurance and monitoring systems used by the service at this inspection.
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 from 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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.