Joint report considers healthcare support to people living in care homes in North Wales
He made the joint review , conducted by the Care Inspectorate Wales (SSD) and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW), consider how well the health care needs met older people living in care homes in North Wales, and how two inspectorates could work together on this issue.
This resulted from a review by the Commissioner for Older People in Wales, "Place to Call Home?"
findings
He noted the report that there are some common issues in all services that need to be addressed in order to provide seamless care of good quality for people living in care homes.
These included being clear about roles and responsibilities between home care and health board; Improved communication between care homes and health board to make it possible to continuously feedback to be given; and organizations work together in the best interests of the people they support.
There has been mixed feedback from care homes in terms of the support out of hours, which included cases where residents were transported to the hospital unnecessarily sometimes because the GP out of hours can visit with.
Care homes and health board noted the error can arise among some staff in terms of what is expected by the community nursing service. This seems to lead to varying levels of support and practice in the region.
The report noted that individuals have a positive experience with physiotherapy or occupational therapy after the start of aid, but it seems to be a lack of clarity about access to services, as well as considerable delay in getting home visits and assessments.
There seems to be lack of awareness of the support, services and products available by the health board for continence.
The report noted that opportunities to consider how it can introduce a more consistent and formal systems of care home managers to raise concerns about access to health care and support quality.
Areas for improvement
The review also identified areas for improvement to the board of health in development, including the following:
- Working with care homes to identify training in order to maintain confidence and competence to manage the needs of health care workers usual residents.
- Provide greater clarity about the roles and responsibilities of community nurses, especially for different types of care homes.
- Ensuring that the arrangements for assistance therapist are clearly communicated.
- Developing an information pack setting out what is available to people living in care homes and how it can be accessed, along with specific contact points for information and feedback.
- Working with the care home sector to identify concerns and issues relating to support continence and how this is being addressed.
- Ensure that sufficient resources are available to meet the needs of people with dementia in care homes and services are provided in a timely and consistent across North Wales.
- Encourage and support care home managers to report concerns about the care their residents while in the hospital, and give feedback.
- Enabling care home managers to alert the board of health, and HIW / AGC, to any concerns they have about health care access and quality of aid and its impact on residents.
