Black Country nursing home told it must improve

The report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) concluded the Hillcroft Nursing Home in High Street, Wordsley, requires improvement with particular concerns raised about patient safety and leadership.

The home, which provides accommodation and care for up to 28 people, was rated 'good' for being effective, caring and responsive.

On its management, the report said: "The provider had not met the legal obligation to provide a registered manager and the service had been operating with interim management arrangements since November 2013.

"The provider told us steps had been taken to rectify this and they had submitted their application to register the manager."

On safety, the report added: "We observed staff regularly carried out positional changes throughout the day which reduced the risk of developing sore skin.

"However the monitoring of these risks was not consistent as there was no evidence nurses were checking the records to identify any concerns."

Hillcroft Nursing Home specialises in care for the elderly and those with dementia.

The unannounced inspection by the CQC took place on July 6 this year and inspectors spoke with 12 people who lived at the home, two relatives and several staff including the manager, operational manager, the nurse and five care staff.

Inspectors looked at the care records of six residents, staffing rotas, staff training records, complaint records and the home's staff recruitment processes.

In their report, concerns were also raised about assessing risk to patients.

"Systems needed to improve to ensure that staff were consistently adhering to guidance in people's risk assessments," said inspectors.

"Some of the records we looked at had not been well maintained. Positional changes for people were recorded on their monitoring charts. Staff were not completing these correctly.

"We checked 21 days records for a person and these had not been completed in a way that would show the person had been supported to change their position.

"The manager told us the nurse checked these records and signed them but this was not happening.

"Nurses did not have an accurate oversight of risks to people's wellbeing."

Inspectors did praise staff at the home who residents and relatives reported as being 'kind and helpful'.

The report added: "We observed that staff were courteous and spoke warmly to and about the people they cared for. They all seemed to know the people well. We heard them talk to people about their past history, and lifestyle and the things that mattered to them.

"We saw staff engage with a person new to the home who wanted to continue to care for their partner also in the home."

Bosses at the nursing home declined to comment.