Martin House

Martin House is a care home with nursing for up to 75 older people. The service is divided into five self-contained units. Each unit was for up to 15 people. At the time of the inspection, 57 people were living at the service. Some people had nursing needs, some were living with dementia and some people were being cared for at the end of their lives.

The service is managed by Minster Care Group, a private organisation managing care and nursing homes in England, Scotland and Wales.

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

People were happy living at the service. They liked the staff and felt their needs were met. They were given choices and received personalised care. The staff treated them with respect and planned care which reflected their needs, choices and interests.

The staff felt well supported. They had the training and information they needed to care for people. Systems to recruit staff helped to make sure they were suitable and had the skills needed for their roles.

People were safely cared for. Risks within the environment were regularly assessed and action taken to maintain safety. The staff assessed and planned for risks related to people's health, wellbeing and needs. They worked with medical professionals to monitor people's health and keep them safe. People received their medicines safely and as prescribed.

People had enough to eat and drink. There were planned social events and activities. People lived in a comfortable and clean environment.

There were suitable systems for dealing with accidents, incidents, safeguarding alerts and complaints. The management team had a good overview of the service and worked with staff to learn from these events. There were a range of audits and checks to help monitor and improve the quality of the service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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 31 July 2021).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found 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 19 May 2021. 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 person-centred care, safe care and treatment, consent to care and treatment and good governance.

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, effective, responsive and well-led which contain those requirements.

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 requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Martin House is a 'care home'. The service is registered to support up to 75 older people, some who may be living with dementia. At the time of the inspection 59 people were living at the service. The London Borough of Ealing funded or partly funded all the people who lived at the service. This is because they have a contract for the places there.

In March 2020 the provider of the service changed to an organisation called Minster Care Management Limited. The management of the service, the people who lived there and staff remained the same.

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

People told us they felt safe but the provider had not always assessed, monitored and managed risks to people's safety. Some people’s care plans did not provide personalised information about people’s preferences for their care or their communication needs.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice.

There were systems in place for monitoring the quality of the service and making improvements. These had identified some of the issues we found, but had not always been effective as they had not enabled the provider to take timely action to address some of the areas for improvement.

The service worked in partnership with other agencies to support people’s health needs. People received their medicines as prescribed.

People, relatives and adult social care professionals said staff and managers were caring, knew people’s care needs well, and treated people with dignity and respect.

Staff supported people to engage in a variety of activities. People and their relatives knew how to raise concerns or complaints and were confident they would be listened to.

Staff received induction, training and supervision and felt supported in their roles. There were appropriate staff recruitment processes in place.

The home was clean and there were procedures in place for preventing and controlling the spread of infection.

We have made a recommendation about supporting people with their hydration needs.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 10 March 2020 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 10 November 2018.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about some people experiencing falls while walking around. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We found no evidence that people were at risk of harm from this concern at the time of our inspection. Please see the Safe section of this full report.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Enforcement

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.

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, seeking people's consent appropriately, person centred care, and good governance.

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

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.