• Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Pheonix Healthcare

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

649 London Road, High Wycombe, HP11 1EZ 0333 011 6226

Provided and run by:
Pheonix Healthcare Ltd

All Inspections

4 March 2022

During a routine inspection

About the service

Pheonix Healthcare is a care at home service providing personal care. The service provides support to older adults, some of whom may live with physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were 13 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People said their support visits were always completed. However, there were multiple instances where the visits did not last for the scheduled period of time. Visits were sometimes not carried out at the planned time. Risk assessments such as premises, food hygiene and moving and handling were completed however some without much detail. Staff personnel files required improvement. There were conflicting start dates against when criminal history checks were obtained and some missing staff employment references. There was, however, evidence of remedial actions to try and fill some of the gaps and omissions made historically. There was sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). Investigations of incidents and accidents were satisfactory.

The quality of the information in people’s care documentation was not consistent; the templates used were satisfactory. Tasks written in people’s daily notes were included within their care plans but for some people the information was not recorded, for example a task of applying a skin cream. The training matrix did not list training about mental capacity, and there was no evidence of catheter awareness training. Consent forms were in place and were signed. Some staff competency assessments were missing. There were satisfactory supervision records.

People and relatives said staff were kind and caring. There were some compliments recorded by the provider. The care records indicated whether people and relatives contributed to the care plans or care plan reviews.

Person centred language was not always used in people’s daily notes. We made a recommendation about care plans. Most of the notes were focused on the tasks that were completed with little to no information about the person's physical, emotional or social wellbeing Examples included pads being changed and creams being applied. Complaints management was satisfactory and there were good investigations. Information about do not resuscitate orders in the electronic care system required review. There was no record of people’s end of life preferences.

There was no manager registered with CQC. The provider was carrying on the service from a location that was not registered, but had submitted applications to CQC. There were some people, staff, and relatives’ surveys but they did not have analysis completed to understand key themes and trends. Staff meetings were held, however where there were actions to be taken there was action plan and not always a due date or named staff member responsible. A service or continuous improvement plan was not in place to capture actions where the provider found improvement was needed. Audits had taken place on personnel files, care files and staff training. However, audits were not completed on a regular basis and did not always follow up what was found at the previous audit.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service however did not support this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 13 January 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a scheduled inspection based on the date of the provider’s registration.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.