Archived: Partington Care Home

All of the people we spoke with continued to express concerns about the amount of staff on duty and the impact this has on the provision of care and support. People told us about having to wait for staff to attend to them and a relative told us about regular delays in getting her mother up in the morning had a negative effect on her diabetic condition.

They also expressed general satisfaction with the physical standards of the home. Although the bathrooms have been refurbished and new baths provided, we were told that nobody had been able to use them as the necessary mobility equipment and staff training had not been provided to make this activity safe. Most people continued to receive bed baths and a relative told us how her mother frequently asks when she can have a proper bath.

We observed that staff were attentive to people's individual needs. For example, ensuring that people were sitting on special pressure relief cushions, and ensuring people had appropriate assistance with eating and drinking. We carried out this observation on an informal basis whilst sitting in the downstairs communal area it did not constitute a comprehensive assessment of staff care throughout the building or outside the time we spent in the home.

People living at the home and their relatives that we spoke to expressed general satisfaction with the physical standards of the home, that warmth, the provision of furniture and accessibility were satisfactory. One person did tell us about her difficulties in having regular bath, which would have been her choice if facilities in the bathroom were suitable for meet her mobility difficulties.

Whilst people living at the home and their relatives that we spoke to expressed general satisfaction with the caring qualities of staff employed at the home, all of them expressed concerns about the numbers of staff on duty routinely throughout the days when they had visited, and the impact this has had on the provision of care and support.

One relative concluded that 'people living here are not getting individualised care; when numbers of staff are down everything is a bit responsive rather than personalised'.

Some of the people we spoke to commented that they had met the new manager and had seen her working around the home. They also told us that they were aware that staff were concerned about some of the things happening at the home at present.