13 July 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Patron House is a residential care home providing personal care. The service provides support to a maximum of 12 people in one adapted building. At the time of our inspection there were ten people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
There had been changes to the provision of meals at the home since our last inspection. We observed portion sizes to be small and where people declined the food that was offered, alternative food was not always available for them.
Staff morale was low, although this had been recognised by the provider and action was being taken. We also received mixed feedback about staffing numbers at the home.
We have made a recommendation about staffing at the home.
People felt safe and supported by staff who were kind and caring. Medicines were managed safely, and staff had the relevant training, skills and knowledge to undertake their roles.
People had residents meetings throughout the year to discuss any concerns and improvements they would like to see in the home. Maintenance records of the care home were kept up to date. The care home had a good working relationship with healthcare professionals.
Staff understood the principle of giving people maximum choice and control of their lives however during our inspection we found people had limited choice around their nutritional needs being met.
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 (5 December 2019)
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted following concerns we had received about the service. Concerns included issues relating to staffing, nutrition and diet. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective 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 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.
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, effective and well led sections of this full report.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.