Archived: Sharmway Private & Residential Home

Updated 18 April 2020

The inspection

This was a targeted inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Warning Notice in relation to Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment and 17 Governance of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team comprised of two inspectors.

Service and service type

Sharmway Private and Residential Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager, who is also the provider, registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means, as a provider, they are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because of the unprecedented circumstances created by Covid 19 virus and we wanted to be sure it was safe to visit the service.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

This was a targeted inspection to check the provider had met the warning notice. Due to the Covid 19 virus and the potential risk of infection to people living at the home, a decision was taken to limit contact. The inspection team restricted themselves away from people living at the home and the staff to concentrate on the safety of the home environment and infection control. We spoke with the provider and a member of staff responsible for general maintenance of the building.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, primarily infection control policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We asked the provider to take actions to address immediate concerns. Prior to this report being finalised the provider submitted photographic evidence of work completed. We will review compliance of the regulations at the next inspection.

Updated 18 April 2020

About the service

Sharmway is a small residential care home providing personal care to 11 older people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service is registered to support up to 11 people.

Sharmway accommodates people in one large, traditional detached house over three floors. Each floor is accessible by stairs only with no lift available. People living at the home share communal bathroom facilities and there are shared bedrooms.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were not consistently safe from the risk of cross infection because the systems and procedures at Sharmway Private & Residential Home were ineffective in identifying improvements needed in maintaining a clean home environment.

People remained at risk of developing contractible illnesses because infection prevention and control practices were not maintained.

The provider's quality monitoring procedures were ineffective in identifying the improvements needed to sustain a clean and safe environment.

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 02 October 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. We issued a warning notice to the provider to make the necessary improvements. At this inspection we found although there had been improvements made to safeguard the premises against the risk of fire; there were several issues identified around infection control, therefore the provider had remained in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection. As a result, we undertook this targeted inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulations 12 and 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.

CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sharmway Private and Residential Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified continued breaches in relation to infection control and how the service is managed at this inspection. In normal circumstances, positive conditions to drive improvement would have been applied to the provider’s registration. However, due to the unprecedented circumstances created by the Covid 19 virus and Government guidelines to CQC, it has been agreed, on this occasion only, we will request updates and evidence from the provider to assure us they have completed the necessary repairs and implemented improvements to maintain the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor their progress.

Follow up

We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.