At-home care service based in Northampton rated as ‘requires improvement’ by care watchdog

An at-home personal care service based in Northampton has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the care watchdog.

Precious Hope and Health Home Care, registered at Redhouse Road, Moulton Park was inspected by the Care Quality Commision (CQC) between September 15 and 17 after concerns were raised about the ‘quality, safety and governance’ of the service.

In a report published by the watchdog last week, the service was rated as ‘requires improvement’ under the ‘safe’ and ‘well-led’ categories due to a number of issues, which according to the company, are already being addressed with improved measures.

Despite maintaining a ‘good’ ranking in the ‘effective’, ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ categories - these were not looked at during this targeted inspection - the service was knocked down to an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’.

Inspectors visited the office and spoke to members of staff, service users and relatives on the phone about the care, which is provided by the company in the homes of their service users and is focused around personal hygiene and eating.

From the inspection, the main concerns of the CQC surrounded risk assessments that should be in place to protect service users from harm, as well as how administered medicines were recorded.

The report says: “There was a lack of oversight and governance systems to ensure people received a safe service.

“Systems that were in place were not implemented effectively and audits had not effectively identified concerns with the service.

“Systems in place to safeguard people from abuse had not been followed in a timely way. Records relating to people's risks and care needs were incomplete and contained misleading information.

“As a result, staff did not receive all the information and guidance they required to provide care that met people's needs.

“Medicine records were incomplete, and the administration of people's medicines was not consistently recorded.”

However, service users also ‘provided positive feedback about regular staff’ and told inspectors that they ‘received the care they required’.

It was also noted in the report that the ‘provider was aware that improvements were required’ and ‘they were implementing new systems’ to make the improvements.

Director of Precious Hope Health and Home Care, Cleto Mudhefi, said: “We have already implemented the changes we need to make following the inspection.

“We have changed the monitoring system, so we can monitor things from the office and see what is happening in the field.

“We can keep a close eye on people arriving on time and how long carers spend in each place.

“With the medication we have also started a new system, so carers are not allowed to leave the house without signing for medication, which addresses the safety issue.

“For us safety is not a major problem as our service users are happy with our services.”

The watchdog will work with the provider to monitor progress and will visit again inline with its re-inspection process.

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