Lime Tree Manor Nursing and Residential Home

Updated 16 March 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 included checking the provider was meeting COVID-19 vaccination requirements. 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

Lime Tree Manor Nursing and Residential Home 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. Lime Tree Manor Nursing and Residential Home is a care home with nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 17 February 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people who lived in the home, three relatives and six members of staff including the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records, staff training records, and records relating to the management of the service, including accidents and incidents, safeguarding, complaints and compliments.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 16 March 2022

About the service

Lime Tree Manor Nursing and Residential Home provides personal and nursing care for up to 110 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 97 people living at the service.

The home was purpose built and provide accommodation to people over three floors each with separate adapted facilities. One floor specialises in providing care to people living with dementia. All bedrooms have complete en-suite facilities with either bath or shower.

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

People, their relatives and health professionals we spoke with felt that staff worked using safe practices. Staff knew how to report their concerns related to safeguarding as well as how to effectively manage risks for people. People’s medicines were administered by trained staff who followed safe medicine administration practices.

There were effective infection control processes in place to lower the risk of infections spreading in the home.

People, their relatives and staff confirmed there was enough staff to meet people’s needs. The provider’s recruitment process was robust, including all required checks to help ensure staff employed had the right skills to work in a care setting.

People and their relatives praised the registered manager and the staff team for being kind and involving people in their care.

The registered manager carried out daily, weekly and monthly audits which helped them assess the quality and safety of the service they provided to people. Actions were taken when needed to improve the service. Lessons learnt with actions needed were shared with staff in meetings and handovers. The service worked in partnership with health and social care professionals to maximise people’s health.

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 on 05 October 2017).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing, medicine management and the lack of support and actions taken by management following concerns raised by staff. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

The overall rating for the service remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

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. This included checking the provider was meeting COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Lime Tree Manor Nursing and Residential Home 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.