Lonsdale Mews

Lonsdale Mews is a care home providing accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care, and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. Lonsdale Mews can support up to 64 people. The service provides support to people living with physical health needs and conditions such as Dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 34 people using the service.

Lonsdale Mews is a specially built building. The service is split into four units. At the time of inspection three units were in use with plans in place to slowly open up the fourth unit. Each unit supported people with similar types of needs.

Each person had their own bedroom and ensuite facilities. Each ground floor room has its own patio. There were communal lounges, dining rooms, a café, cinema, activities room, hair salon and a garden people could use if they wished.

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

People were safe. Systems and processes were in place to safeguard people and protect them from the risk of harm and abuse.

People were supported by staff who had been trained and recruited safely. Sufficient numbers of staff were available and deployed to safely meet people’s needs.

Staff were supported by staff who cared for them and treated them with respect.

Care provided was personalised and people were involved in planning their care. Staff knew people well and were responsive to their changing health needs, making referrals and seeking medical support when required.

The service was well-led. People and staff felt the registered manager was approachable and responsive. People, their relatives and staff felt listened to and felt able to raise complaints which had been dealt with promptly.

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.

During this inspection we carried out a separate thematic probe, which asked questions of the provider, people and their relatives, about the quality of oral health care support and access to dentists, for people living in the care home. This was to follow up on the findings and recommendations from our national report on oral healthcare in care homes that was published in 2019 called ‘Smiling Matters’. We will publish a follow up report to the 2019 'Smiling Matters' report, with up to date findings and recommendations about oral health, in due course.

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

Why we inspected

This service was registered with us on 28 September 2020 and this is the first inspection.

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.

We found the following examples of good practice.

Staff were wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with government guidance.

The service was clean and effective systems were in place to ensure laundry and kitchen staff did not go unnecessarily into areas of the service where there was a COVID-19 outbreak.

Procedures were in place to ensure visitors to the service had their COVID-19 vaccination status and lateral flow test status checked.

The registered manager was aware of their responsibilities and managed the COVID-19 outbreak with support from relevant partner agencies.

We found the following examples of good practice.

¿ Robust procedures were in place for all visitors to the service together with information and guidance regarding the risks posed by COVID-19 clearly displayed.

¿ A COVID-19 testing programme was in place for staff and people living in the service. This ensured prompt action could be taken to prevent the spread of the infection if a positive test was returned.

¿ The provider followed government guidance on managing new admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

¿ Sufficient stocks of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) enabled staff to follow safe Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice.

¿ A cleaning programme was in place, and the housekeeping team understood the importance of their role. They told us what cleaning products they used for different areas and how they worked to reduce the risk of cross infection.

¿ Staff received COVID-19 IPC training. This provided them with the most up to date guidance and best practice to keep people and themselves as safe as possible from the risk of infection.

¿ People were supported to keep in touch with their relatives in a safe way including those who were receiving end of life care. A secure 'visitors pod' enabled visitors to see their relatives without the need to enter the main building. The 'pod' was sanitized following each visit.