3 October 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Alexandra Lodge is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 19 people. People are supported in 1 adapted building. On the day of our inspection, there were no people using the service. This is because we had suspended the registration of the service.
What we found
Our last inspection resulted in the registration of the service being suspended. This means the provider is able to remain registered but is not able to support any people. A suspension of a provider's registration is time limited, so we returned to the service to assess if the provider had made improvements to the service since our last inspection. Our inspection was targeted to only look at the areas of concern at our last inspection.
We found that most of environmental risks at the service had been resolved. We found the main boiler was not working however action had been taken to ensure this was fixed, the provider did not plan on admitting new people to the service until the boiler was fixed. Action had been taken to restrict water temperatures to ensure people would no longer be at risk of scalding. Water maintenance to prevent the buildup of legionella bacteria had been completed. A risk assessment by a qualified contractor had been completed.
All staff including kitchen staff had completed training in the management of choking. Best practice guidance was available in both the dining room and kitchen to ensure staff had the correct information in regards to safe food preparation.
The home was clean and tidy. New cleaning schedules had been created and implemented to monitor cleaning processes.
The manager had reviewed staffing numbers and implemented a new dependency tool to calculate the number of staff required. Policies relating to the management of the service had been updated to ensure staff had clear guidance in order to provide safe care.
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 28 July 2023). We carried out a further targeted inspection on 2 August 2023.
Why we inspected
After the last inspection, we suspended the providers registration. We returned to the service to see if any changes had been made. This is to ensure safety for people using the service in the future.
We completed a targeted inspection. This does 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.
Enforcement
The last focused inspection identified 5 breaches of regulation. This was due to concerns with safety, staffing levels, recruitment, safeguarding from abuse and governance. At the time of this inspection, there were no people living at Alexandra Lodge. We were therefore unable assess if the service was still in breach of legislation. This means that these breaches of regulation remain and will be reassessed if suitable at a future inspection of the service.
Follow up
At the time of our inspection, the service had a time limited suspension. This prevented them from supporting people at the service. The suspension ended following this inspection meaning the service was able to carry out the registered regulated activity and support people in line with their imposed legal conditions. We are still considering any further regulatory action and full details of this will be added once any appeals are concluded. In the interim, we will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.