Victoria Care Home

Updated 12 February 2022

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice is safe and that services are compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 2 February 2022 and was announced. We gave the provider 24 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Updated 12 February 2022

About the service

Victoria Care Home is a residential care home that provides personal and nursing care for

up to 93 people. At the time of our inspection 70 people lived in the service.

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

Sufficient numbers of staff to cover and support people’s needs were deployed across all areas. The provider used a dependency tool to identify the number of staff required for each area. Appropriate safety checks were in place to ensure staff were safe to work with people.

Risks were assessed and managed. Since our last inspection the provider had implemented new ways of working to ensure people at risk of choking were kept safe.

People received their prescribed medicines safely. The system for managing medicines ensured people were given the right dose at the right time. PRN protocols were in place but required more details to why the medicine was being given.

We recommend the provider reviews PRN protocols.

Accidents and incidents were reviewed and monitored to identify trends and to prevent reoccurrences.

Staff wore personal protective equipment (PPE) effectively. The service was kept clean to minimise risk of people acquiring an infection. We were assured that the provider was preventing visitors from catching and spreading infections and were assured that people were admitted safely to the service.

The service was well-led, and staff were empowered to do their job, but the registered manager required further oversight when delegating the workload.

The service engaged and involved people and their relatives to ensure they were kept up to date on what was happening at the service. One person said, “They are keeping me informed at the moment, with me being ill, as I used to go three to four times a week, they had no objections me looking in his care plan, if I have a problem I do speak to staff. I have been kept informed, this COVID stopping people going in.

Personal information was stored correctly, but some files contained sensitive information

We have made a recommendation that the provider reviews personal information kept on care files.

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

Rating at last inspection (and update) The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 24 December 2019). and there were breaches of regulations 12, and 18 of the Health and Social Care Act Regulations 2014.The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection some improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations. Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 13 November 2019. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and staff deployment.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe, and Well-led which contain those requirements.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Victoria Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.