New report highlights improvements and further action at Mildenhall care home

Home news

Nov 17, 2014

The Care Quality Commission has just published the report into its latest inspection of Care UK’s Mildenhall Lodge care home in Suffolk.

The inspectors only looked at two aspects of the delivery of care in the home so the report cannot evidence full compliance.  However, it does indicate that improvements have been made and highlights positive feedback from residents and relatives. 

Andrew Knight, Care UK’s managing director for residential care said: “As we have already acknowledged,  this report demonstrates that we still have further work to do, but I do genuinely believe, as do CQC and Suffolk County Council, that we have made progress.   In the six weeks since CQC visited Mildenhall  we have made even more progress in resolving the remaining issues at this home.”

Examples of actions taken to bring about the improvements seen at the home include:

• Residents and relatives have been invited to participate in a review of all the care plans so that we can ensure people’s needs, wishes and expectations are clearly set out. All care records are now up to date and 1-to-1 training on the electronic system has ensured every single nurse and care assistant has access to the electronic records.
• Our specialist national dementia care team is now working alongside colleagues at the home, delivering group sessions and one-to-one coaching to raise awareness of dementia and the needs of residents living with this condition.
• A comprehensive recruitment and training programme has meant we have increased the number of nurses and care assistants who are supporting residents at busy periods such as meal times.  Levels of staffing are reviewed and monitored by the manager to ensure people’s needs are fully met.  
• Daily communication meetings for the care team have been introduced, which share information affecting any resident to ensure that, where action is required to support someone, it is implemented promptly.  
• A more robust way of handing over details about residents’ needs and wishes when different team members come on duty has been implemented. This puts particular emphasis on any special dietary needs or help people might require with eating their meals.

Andrew Knight continued: “We accept that the care at Mildenhall Lodge fell below the high standard that residents and their families deserve and we have already publicly apologised for that. It was our first new Suffolk home and we have learnt many lessons that we will use as we open other new homes across the region.  With the support of a highly experienced manager and nursing care experts from my national team we will continue towards our goal of delivering consistently high quality, compassionate care at Mildenhall Lodge.”