Archived: Polars

Updated 18 October 2016

We carried out this focused inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements of regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 relating to the safe care and treatment of people.

The inspection took place on 1 September 2016 and was conducted by one inspector. Before the inspection we reviewed notifications we had been sent by the provider. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We also reviewed the previous inspection report and a warning notice that had been issued in relation to the safe care and treatment of people.

We spoke with three people living at the home. We also spoke with the manager; the deputy manager; three care staff and a housekeeper. We looked at care records for four people, together with records of accidents and incidents that had occurred. We also looked at infection control arrangements and the way laundry was processed.

Updated 18 October 2016

We carried out an unannounced, comprehensive inspection of Polars in April 2016. A breach of legal requirements was found. People were not protected from the risk of harm and infection control arrangements were inadequate. After the comprehensive inspection, we issued a warning notice requiring the provider to take action. The provider wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to the breach.

We undertook this unannounced focused inspection on 1 September 2016 to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Polars on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Polars is a residential care home for people requiring personal care. A maximum of 37 people can be accommodated and at the time of our inspection there were 29 people living in the home, some of whom had physical disabilities or were living with dementia. Care is provided over two floors, with two lifts providing access to the upper floors. On the ground floor there are several communal lounge areas, a hair salon, a dining room and a garden.

A registered manager was not in place at the time of the inspection, although the manager had applied to be registered with CQC and their application was being processed. 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 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

Most people were protected appropriately from the risk of falling. Where people had fallen, staff took action to reduce the risk of recurrence. However, staff had not considered changes to improve the safety of the environment for a person who had fallen on multiple occasions, although the manager agreed to do this.

Where needed, staff monitored people’s blood sugar levels effectively and took positive action when the levels were too high or too low. This helped ensure people’s health was maintained.

People were cared for in a clean, hygienic environment. Infection control risks had been assessed. Staff had been suitably trained and followed appropriate procedures to reduce the risk and spread of infection. The laundry had been refurbished and new storage arrangements had been put in place to keep people’s topical creams safe and minimise the risk of cross infection.