H M T Care - 48 Albany Drive

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question Good. At this assessment the rating has remained Good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

Each person had a care plan that reflected their individual needs and was regularly updated to ensure staff had the information they needed around people’s physical and social needs and the support they required. These were created alongside people and their representatives to ensure they reflected people’s wishes. People felt actively involved with the care of their loved ones with one relative stating “They are really good at keeping us in the loop. I don’t think anything that can be improved. I have always been very pleased.”
 

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

There was clear guidance in place setting out how people should be supported in a way that reflected current best practice for Huntington’s Disease and for their wider health needs. This was created in collaboration with health professionals, who told us the provider ensured care was delivered in line with their recommendations. One stakeholder told us, “I have worked alongside HMT for many years, the staff are attentive to the service user's needs. Dietary requirements are met well, taking into consideration speech and language therapy requirements.”

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

Everybody we spoke with told us the team at Albany Drive worked together collaboratively to ensure people’s needs were met, and they received high quality and person centred care. One relative told us, “It’s just exemplary. They give my relative the best care possible in the later stage of Huntington’s Disease. We are kept in constant contact as needs change.” Staff spoke highly and with pride about the teams they worked in, and how they worked together to support people.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

People were supported to manage their health needs through delivery of evidence based care and clear guidance. For example, for people who required modified diets or enhanced nutritional intake because of their diagnosis. Physical activity was promoted in line with people’s abilities which included supporting 1 person to regularly attend the gym and go for walks, whereas other people were supported to regular physio activities. One person told us, “Physiotherapy come in weekly to help with exercises and I find this helpful.” The service supported people to access regular health appointments such as for vaccinations, or Botox injections to improve muscle function. A relative explained, “They always ask about vaccinations every year. They managed to get my relative a referral for Botox, treatment which really helps and them raise their arms and means they can get dressed more comfortably.”
 

The provider did not always routinely monitor people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it.

Although systems were largely effective at monitoring people’s outcomes, we identified outcomes of “as and when medications” were not being appropriately monitored. This important to ensure that medications prescribed are proving effective at meeting people’s needs. For example, where antipsychotic medications were prescribed to reduce people’s anxiety or distress, it was not being recorded they had been effective at doing so. This is important to ensure that the medicine remained necessary to support the person to reduce their distress. This was despite the potential risks posed by side effects of such medications.

However other monitoring systems were effective such as regular reviews of weights and checks to ensure that people were receiving the nutrition and hydration they required. This was especially important because of higher risks caused by weight loss and muscle mass posed to people living with Huntington’s disease. There were also systems to routinely monitor people’s experience of care, such as regular meetings to discuss if it was continuing meet their wishes and expectations.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

We observed staff respecting the principles of consent during our inspection, and they explained if people declined care they would respect people’s right to do so. One staff member told us, “(Person) sometimes needs time. That is their choice. If that is the case I would respect that and come back later”. Where people lacked the capacity to make decisions for themselves, this was appropriately assessed and people’s representatives and stakeholders were involved to make best interest decisions on their behalf. These were regularly checked to ensure they continued to be appropriate.