Chesterfield care home bounces back from being placed in special measures less than two years ago - to be rated ‘good’

Whittington Care Home, in Holland Road, had been placed in special measures in October 2021 following a visit from the Care Quality Commission.

During the inspection the care home was found to be in breach of regulations and raised concerns surrounding patient safety: they said peoples weight had not been routinely measured, and medicine was not always stored safely. The care home was branded inadequate, placed in special measures, and ordered to improve.

Inspectors revisited the premises in May and published their findings earlier this month with the care home now rated ‘good’ across the board.

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The nursing home provides care for up to 48 people including those with dementia – at the time of the inspection there were 28 people using the service.

Alison Boote, operations director at Healthcare Management Solutions, which operates Whittington care home said: “This report is acknowledgement of the hard work of the whole team at Whittington care home.

“It is testament to their dedication, professionalism and determination to provide the best possible care that the CQC has acknowledged significant improvements and rated the home as ‘Good’. The comments from our residents and their families are particularly pleasing and I congratulate everyone on a fantastic result.”

The report said that systems were now in place to protect people from the risk of abuse and that staff demonstrated an understanding and awareness around safeguarding.

Relatives told inspectors that their loved ones felts safe and were happy with the care received.

An extract from the report reads: “People's weights were monitored and diets were modified according to people's needs. One relative toldus, "They have really turned things round for [person], [person] was 4 stone when [person] got here and now [person] has put on weight and is eating well and talks about how good the food is".

"Staff respected people's individual needs and treated people with kindness. One person told us, "I do like it here, people are very nice here" and another person told us, "I think both day and night staff are good."