20 January 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Ashleigh House is a care home which provides accommodation and support for up to 10 people aged 65 and over and those with mental health conditions. At the time of our inspection 10 people were living at the home.
People’s experience of using this service
Not all elements of the service were safe. The service was not meeting the requirement to ensure non-exempt visiting professionals were vaccinated against COVID-19. Medicines were not always stored and administered safely as guidelines for administration were not always clear. Not all risks to people’s health and wellbeing were adequately assessed and mitigated as the risk of fire had not been fully assessed for some people.
Care plans did not always represent people’s care and accommodation choices and preferences. People had not been fully consulted about some aspects of their living arrangements.
The provider took immediate action to resolve the issues we identified. People were happy with the care and support they received, and they told us staff were kind and caring. Health and social care professionals who worked with the service to plan and deliver care and support spoke highly of how the service was managed to ensure people achieved good outcomes.
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 at the last inspection was good (published 8 March 2018).
Why we inspected
As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice is safe and that services are compliant with IPC measures. We planned a targeted inspection of this service to check the IPC practices the provider had in place. During the inspection we identified some concerns which prompted us to broaden the scope of the inspection to consider the key questions of safe and well-led.
We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.
Recommendations
We have made recommendations about reviewing medicine procedures, risk assessments, care plans and quality assurance processes.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.