Dussindale Park is registered to provide nursing and residential care for up to 58 people. At the time of the inspection 46 people were living at the home. The home supports older people with a range of nursing and physical needs. Some people at the home were living with dementia. The accommodation is comprised over two floors and was built in the 1990’s.
There was a registered manager in place. 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. For the purposes of this report the registered manager will be referred to as the manager. There was also a deputy manager who was also a registered nurse.
There was a new manager in place from when the home was last inspected. Whilst we recognised that the new manager had identified and taken action regarding several areas and made improvements. We also found other areas which required improvements to be made.
People’s call bells and alarms in their rooms were not always working. The provider and manager were aware of this, but there were no plans in place to address this issue to ensure people’s call bells and alarms worked. There were other systems to check people’s safety when they were in their rooms. However, the call bells and alarms were not being checked regularly enough, considering they were faulty.
There had been some medication errors but the quality assurance system had not identified all of them. There were quality monitoring systems in place, but these did not identify the issues which we found during our inspection.
We made a recommendation about the service improving the systems and audits they use to monitor the quality of the service.
People had thorough risk assessments relating to their health and physical needs. There were also regular reviews taking place of people’s needs and what action was needed when a person’s health needs changed. The nursing staff monitored people’s health needs closely if they were very unwell. Referrals to the GP and specialist health teams were taking place when required in a timely way.
Records gave guidance to staff about how to manage people’s needs and what actions were needed to keep people safe. However, people’s diabetic care plans were not effective, but we were told these were being reviewed and it was confirmed that this process had started.
The manager responded effectively to some accidents and incidents. However, they and the provider had not taken appropriate action regarding the faulty call bells system at the home.
The manager and staff knew how to protect people from potential harm and abuse. There were systems for staff to report their concerns to the manager. The manager knew of external agencies they must report such concerns to. Staff knowledge about these agencies was variable, but the manager said they would address this issue.
People benefited from being supported by staff who were safely recruited. There was consistently enough staff to safely meet people’s care and nursing needs, at the time of this inspection.
Care staff and the nursing staff felt their induction to their job prepared them for their work. The Care staff and the nursing staff also received regular training. The competency of the nursing staff was monitored and assessed. Additional training relevant to the care staff role was not taking place. However, we were told of plans to address this issue.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is required to monitor the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and reports on what we find. The service was working within the principles of the MCA. Staff had a good understanding about the need to seek consent from the people they were supporting.
People told us that staff treated them in a caring and kind way. People and staff had formed positive relationships with one another. People’s dignity and privacy was promoted.
There was a range of activities and planned events which took place on a regular basis. There were also plans to increase this further with an additional activity co-ordinator.
We found there was a positive and open culture at the home. Staff found the manager and deputy manager approachable and had confidence in them.