Brandon care home rated ‘good’ by CQC

Care home bosses in Brandon are celebrating after a healthcare regulator found marked improvements in the service they offer.

Brandon Park Residential and Nursing Home was rated as ‘requires improvement’ in a Care Quality Commission report published last year, but the service in Bury Road, Brandon, has been upgraded to ‘good’ following a recent CQC inspection.

Breaches had previously been identified in medication administration, mental capacity and record.

But the latest report, which followed an unannounced inspection at the end of January, found improvements in the management and running of the service and said inspectors felt people’s care needs were being met.

Inspectors found the service – run by Stowlangtoft Healthcare LLP – to be safe, caring, responsive and well led, areas they rated as ‘good’.

But further staff training and clear demonstrable records would be needed to improve the ‘mostly effective’ service, an area they found still ‘requires improvement’.

“Medication practices were mostly robust but could benefit from more audits and a review of processes to ensure people received their medicines as intended,” stated the report.

Meanwhile, it said staff were ‘kind, confident and for the most part well trained’ and ‘were mindful about supporting people in accordance with their needs and wishes’.

There were enough staff with the right skills to meet the needs of service users and ‘overall satisfaction with the service was high from people, staff and relatives’ the inspectors had spoken to, the report said.

Ruth French, a director of Stowlangtoft Healthcare, which also manages the Stowlangtoft Hall Nursing Home, said she was delighted the CQC had recognised the excellent work put in place by staff at Brandon Park.

“We are proud that so much has been achieved and we are excited about what the future holds,” she said.