What the CQC found at Redlands House

People described staff as kind and compassionate. Inspectors saw people who appeared relaxed and comfortable with staff.

“People received care and support from staff who were kind, caring and thoughtful.” from the report

Care plans included information about people's preferences, interests and communication. Staff generally knew people's needs and likes well.

“The care plans we viewed contained personalised information to assist staff in meeting people's individual needs.” from the report

People saw health professionals when needed, and external professionals gave positive feedback about referrals and communication.

“People had access to a wide range of healthcare professionals and, from the records we viewed, we saw that appropriate referrals had been made in a timely manner.” from the report

The home investigated complaints and responded to them. Inspectors saw that a concern raised during the inspection was acted on promptly.

“We saw, from the records we viewed, that when complaints were raised, these were fully and appropriately investigated and a response given to the complainant.” from the report

Medicine records did not always show whether people had received medicines as prescribed. Some medicines had not been obtained in time, including important cardiovascular medicines for one person.

“Some people's Medication Administration Records (MARs) showed gaps, discrepancies and deleted records that were unexplained.” from the report

Some care plans did not contain accurate, current information about nutritional support. One person did not receive the recommended food texture and their thickener instructions were not recorded consistently.

“For one person, the Speech and Language Therapist (SALT) had recommended a soft diet to minimise the risk of choking.” from the report

Building work affected the environment and sometimes made meals noisy or chaotic. An external door was open to a main road and the building work area, but it was repaired during the visit.

“This door led to both a main road and the section of the home where major building work was taking place.” from the report

Audits covered the service but did not identify or correct the medicine and care plan problems. Checks of fire doors also did not contain enough detail to show that they were being checked properly.

“Although the provider had a quality monitoring system in place that covered all aspects of the service provision, it had not been fully effective at identifying the issues found at this inspection.” from the report

There was no activity information on display and the complaints policy was not available in the home. This could make it harder for people to plan activities or know how to raise concerns.

“There were no accessible activity plans on show and the complaints policy was not available.” from the report