Waltham Forest Rehabilitation Services

Updated 5 January 2016

North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) provides care and treatment at the Ainslie rehabilitation unit. The Ainslie unit includes 32 rehabilitation beds, over two wards for patients aged 18 or over. It provides short term inpatient rehabilitation services for patients who are medically well enough to leave hospital and receive care in a community nurse and therapy led unit. On discharge from the unit, patients will be expected to return to their usual place of residence.

The unit is managed by nursing and therapy. There is consultant medical cover two sessions each week and a staff grade doctor on duty each weekday. Out of hours medical cover is provided by a GP service.. The unit is staffed by nurses permanently based on site who look after patient’s medical needs and help with medicines and personal care.

Other team members of the Ainslie unit team include: physiotherapists; occupational therapists; speech and language therapists (SALT); and dieticians. The therapy staff are only available Monday to Friday, with a small team of therapists being available on weekends.

Visiting times at the unit are from 10am to 8pm. The unit has a protected mealtimes policy that relatives and friends are asked to observe. However, the unit encourages friends or relatives wishing to assist patients at meal times.

At the time of the last inspection on the 24 January 2014 the unit was not meeting the essential standards ensuring that patients were protected against the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment arising from a lack of proper information about them by means of the maintenance of an accurate record, (Regulation 20(1) (a) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010. These compliance actions were inspected as part of the inspection on the 10 August 2015 and the requirements had been met.

Updated 5 January 2016

• The service had agreed referral pathways and procedures in place. Waiting times to access the service were short. Integrated care and joint assessments with allied health professionals were in place. The Ainslie Unit was clean, hygienic and well maintained. There were robust arrangements in place to store, manage and administer medicines. Care and treatment records were fit for purpose, appropriately stored and readily accessible to staff. Patient consent to treatment was obtained and appropriately recorded. Patients and carers were asked to feedback on the service provided using a friends and family test (FFT), however take up of this in some months was very low.

• Safe staffing levels were maintained on the unit. Staff were supported to complete mandatory training and had their performance regularly appraised. Incidents were appropriately reported and investigated and learning from incidents was shared. Appropriate procedures to safeguard patients were in place.

• A range of best practice guidelines to support the care and treatment of patients were in use. Audits were regularly completed to monitor the outcomes of care and treatment patients received. Patients received caring, compassionate treatment and were involved in making decisions about their care. Care and treatment was delivered in ways that maintained and promoted patients dignity and respect. However, some physiotherapy exercises were taking place in the public lounge, which could compromise patient’s privacy and dignity.

• The trusts vision and values were known to and promoted by staff and underpinned the care and treatment delivered on the unit. There was clear leadership of the unit at a local level and corporate level. Appropriate governance, risk management and quality improvement measures were in place. Several examples of new and emerging innovative practice were observed during the inspection.