Archived: Lyndon Hall Nursing Home

The agencies that fund placements at this location have had concerns since August 2009. The concerns include or have included care planning, care to people with dementia and management issues.

To safeguard people and give the location the opportunity to improve the care delivery, a suspension of purchasing at the location was put in place by the funding agencies. This suspension has been in place or has been lifted with restrictions, intermittently from August 2009.

The location is registered to provide accommodation and personal care to a maximum of 80. As a result of the suspension of purchasing placed on this location at the time of our inspection only 45 people were living there.

In June 2011 we carried out a compliance review of Lyndon Hall and found that they were not compliant in any of the outcome areas that we assessed which were;

Outcome 04: People should get safe and appropriate care that meets their needs and supports their rights.

Outcome 07: People should be protected from abuse and staff should respect their human rights.

Outcome 08: People should be cared for in a clean environment and protected from the risk of infection.

Outcome 10: People should be cared for in a safe and accessible surroundings that support their health and welfare.

Outcome 16: The service should have quality checking systems to manage risks and assure the health, welfare and safety of people who receive care.

Following our June 2011 inspection we required that improvements be made. The Provider sent us an action plan telling us when and how improvements would be made.

During our August 2011 inspection we checked whether Lyndon Hall had made improvements in respect of these five outcomes. Although we found that there had been improvements in some areas, in others there had not, or there had not been enough improvement.

We spent the day observing people, their routines and interactions with staff. Due to limited communication and understanding of some people because of their dementia needs we only spoke with three people living at the location. These people indicated that they were all fairly happy. Below are a few examples of what they said to us;

'Yes I am alright. I like it here'.

'I am OK'.

We were fortunate in that there were a number of relatives at the location during our inspection. We spoke with two of these relatives. Generally they were happy with the location. Below are a few examples of what they said to us;

'They are really well looked after'.

'The staff are nice'.

'I visit most days and the staff make me feel welcome'.

To gain the views of other people involved with the care at the location we spoke to a GP and three relatives.

The GP told us that he only had three patients at the location. He stated that where needed, staff always followed any instructions he gave and he felt that there was good communication between him and the staff.

The relatives that we spoke with were generally happy with the care provided.

One relative told us; 'I have always been happy with the care. If ill or anything they always keep me informed'.

Another relative said; 'Very good care. They all seem so kind'.

Although a number of relatives and a GP expressed positive views about the care provided at the location, issues and shortfalls were apparent with regard to care planning, dementia care and overall management.

We observed some positive aspects of care practice, but also poor practice. Examples of poor practice that we found include the lack of reporting and follow up of physical problems identified by staff.

Though staff training records indicated significant levels of safeguarding training we identified shortfalls in appropriate action and reporting in identified cases of abuse and the management of challenging behaviours.

Similarly, though a significant number of staff have received infection control training we observed a number of examples where practice could be improved.

Overall processes to ensure safe and consistent quality of care are not adequate. Current systems miss the opportunity to identify shortfalls, some of which are having a major detrimental affect on people. Consequently the current systems do not identify opportunities to implement corrective actions.