Archived: Acacia Care Centre

Staff that we spoke with were polite and helpful and we saw that they were respectful to people using the service. A relative of a person using the service told us, 'I have never had any concerns about the way staff care for my relative.'

We observed breakfast being served in the two dining rooms when we arrived at 8.30am and we saw that there was one member of staff available to assist in each of the two dining rooms. There were six people using the service in one dining room and eight in the other.

Breakfast was not ready to be served as staff were bringing other people to the dining rooms. People using the service were falling asleep at the dining table. We asked one person using the service if they were waiting for breakfast and they told us, 'No I'm waiting to go to the toilet.' We asked if they had told anyone that they needed to use the toilet and they said, 'No, there's no one here to tell.'

One person using the service had fallen asleep in the dining room, whilst waiting for their breakfast. They were slumped in the dining chair and one arm was almost touching the floor. We saw that this had affected their circulation and their hand was turning blue.

There was a member of staff in the dining room but they were concentrating on fetching breakfast items from the kitchen and had not noticed this person's position. We pointed this out to the nurse on duty, who woke the person and repositioned the arm with a supporting pillow. We saw that their circulation improved very quickly.

We looked at a care plan of a person using the service and we saw that staff had recorded in daily records a number of concerns raised by the relatives of this person. We looked at the complaints records held by the home and these concerns had not been logged and there was no evidence that they had been acted on in accordance with the homes complaints policy.

There was a complaints policy displayed in the entrance of the h me. This was in an inaccessible place for people using the service and it was difficult for visitors to the home to see due to its position and faded text. We looked at the complaints policy and we saw that it was out of date with regards to our contact details and for contacting the area manager of Southern Cross. We spoke with the manager about this and she produced an up to date version of the policy, which had not yet been displayed.

There was not any evidence of information displayed around the home for people using the service to access and know how to complain if they were not happy. The manager told us she would address this straight away and display the up to date complaints policy in the entrance.