Medirite Healthcare

Medirite Healthcare provided support to 4 people at the time of the inspection. The service is registered to support older people including those living with dementia, younger adults, people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorders, sensory impairments and people requiring support with their mental health. 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. At this inspection, they were providing a regulated activity for 1 person in a supported living setting.

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

Staff were not recruited safely, the provider failed to ensure that all relevant checks were made to ensure that staff were of good character.

Governance systems were not effective at identifying where improvements were required.

People’s plans of care and risk assessments did not always contain up to date information. People received their medicines as prescribed and were dispensed by staff who were trained and competent to carry out the task. People were protected from the risk of abuse. Accidents and incidents were recorded with appropriate actions taken to reduce the risk of re-occurrence.

Staff felt supported by the management of the service. Management understood their duty to be open and honest with people when things went wrong. The service worked alongside other agencies to ensure people received support when needed.

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 good (published 20 May 2017).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to an adverse incident. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

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

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe recruitment of staff and governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Medirite healthcare provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting one person.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were supported by staff that could recognise potential signs of abuse and knew how to report concerns regarding people’s safety. People were supported by sufficient numbers of consistent staff who had been recruited safely. Risks to the health, safety and well-being of people were identified and managed. Staff had a good understanding of how care and support should be provided in order to keep people safe. The provider was not currently supporting people in administering medicines but we saw the provider had systems in place to ensure medicines were managed safely.

People were supported by staff that had the required skills and support to provide effective care.

People consented to their care and support and the registered manager had an understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and how to apply the principles where people lacked capacity. People were supported to eat and drink sufficient amount and were offered choices. People were supported to maintain good health.

People were supported by staff that were caring and treated them with kindness and respect. People’s individual needs and preferences were understood and met by staff and people were involved in making decisions about how their care and support was provided. Staff supported people in a way that maintained their privacy and dignity and promoted their independence.

People knew how to raise a concern or complaint and expressed confidence that concerns would be dealt with efficiently by the registered manager.

The registered manager had effective systems in place to monitor the quality and consistency of the care provided. People and staff were encouraged to give feedback on the service. Staff felt supported by the registered manager and had a good understanding of their responsibilities. The registered manager understood their responsibility to notify us of events such as allegations of abuse which they are required to do by law.