'Improving picture' at Cheshire care home that was placed in special measures

The home now has an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’.

A Nantwich care home which was rated ‘inadequate’ and placed into special measures to protect people is now improving, the Care Quality Commission has said. St Catherine’s Care Home, which provides accommodation and nursing care to older people, some with dementia, was found to have breached the legal regulations in five areas during an earlier inspection by the CQC in October last year.

The breaches were in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, meeting nutritional and hydration needs, staffing and governance. A report published this week says a follow-up assessment conducted at the home on Barony Road between April 29 and May 19 revealed an ‘improving picture’ – and the home now has an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’.

‘Requires improvement’ is one step up from inadequate and means the service isn’t performing as well as it should. The CQC has told the home how it must improve. “This assessment was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last assessment,” said the report.

“Improvements were found at this assessment and the provider was no longer in breach of these regulations.” It continued: “Since our last inspection, there was an improving picture and managers had worked to implement changes and make improvements, these needed to be fully embedded, sustained and built upon.

“A new regional manager and clinical nurse specialist had been providing oversight and supporting the registered manager to implement more effective governance systems.” The report said the provider, Park Homes (UK) Limited, needed to ensure ongoing improvements were maintained to ensure record keeping was robust, that staff followed plans to manage risk and there was always sufficient staff especially when there were unexpected absences.

It added: “We found there had been an oversight in relation to meeting the requirements to notify CQC of certain events.” The inspectors said they received positive comments from people about living at the home. The report says: “People told us, ‘I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. It’s good here’, and ‘overall I am very happy here, I can’t complain’.

It added: “We received some mixed comments about staff availability at certain times, however, people felt staff knew them well and their choices were respected. “People had seen some improvements to the environment and said the building was clean.”

The latest assessment report can be found here at www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-11433069441

NEWSLETTER: Sign up for CheshireLive email direct to your inbox here