Archived: Honeysuckle House

Updated 29 April 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

We undertook an unannounced focused inspection of Honeysuckle House on 30 March 2016. This inspection was undertaken to check that improvements to meet legal requirements planned by the provider after our last inspection on 16 October 2014 had been made.

We inspected the service against one of the five questions we ask about services: is the service safe. This is because the service was not meeting some legal requirements. The inspection was carried out by a single pharmacist inspector.

Prior to the inspection we checked the action plan that the provider sent us following the inspection in October 2014. We also looked at notifications the provider had sent us that are required by law under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. During the inspection we looked in detail at records relating to the safe management of medicines at the home, records related to medicines training, and how medicines were stored.

Updated 29 April 2016

At our last inspection of this service on 16 October 2014, the provider was in breach of the regulation relating to medicines management, Regulation 13 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 which corresponds to Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014). The provider sent us an action plan after the inspection detailing how they would meet this standard. At this inspection we found that improvements had been made, medicines were being managed safely and the provider was no longer in breach of this regulation.

This inspection took place on 30 March 2016 and was unannounced. This inspection was carried out by a single pharmacist inspector. This report only covers our findings in relation to the safe management of medicines within the safe section. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Honeysuckle House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk .

Honeysuckle House provides accommodation for up to 32 older people some of whom are living with dementia. There were 31 people living at the home on the day of our inspection.

There was a registered manager in post but they were away on leave on the day of the inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We were assisted during our inspection by the deputy manager.

All of the issues we found with medicines at the last inspection had been addressed. Medicines were stored safely, and there were no omissions in recording on people’s medicines administration records. All staff administering medicines had been assessed by the provider as competent to do so. On the day of our inspection, we fed back three minor areas for improvement with medicines relating to recording medicine refusals, pain management reviews and the covert administration of medicines.