Archived: Arlington House

We looked at the accident records and daily notes of a person using the service and we saw that this person had suffered three falls during a one week period. On one occasion an ambulance and GP had been called but on two occasions the staff had not requested the GP. Although staff had recorded, 'no apparent injury', they had not sought advice from a health care professional and the care home does not employ qualified nurses.

Although one of the falls was recorded on the persons daily notes it was not recorded in the accident book. The officer in charge told us that as staff had not witnessed this fall, an accident record had not been completed. There was no evidence of staff making a referral to the falls prevention team for this person. The persons care plan contained a falls and mobility risk assessment which stated that they were at 'slight risk' of falling but there was not a plan in place to tell staff how to manage the risk of falls, other than stating, 'needs needs small amount of help at the moment.' The risk assessment had not been updated to show the risk of falling had increased despite this person having three falls over the period of a week.

We spoke with five people using the service about the staff. We received positive comments such as, 'the staff are very good', 'staff are kind to me' and 'they (the staff) are wonderful.'

We also observed positive interactions between staff and people using the service. There was a relaxed atmosphere and we saw that people using the service looked comfortable talking to staff.