Enter and View: Bletchley House care home

The purpose of this Enter and View programme was to engage with residents, their relatives, or carers, to explore their overall experience of living in Bletchley House care home. As well as building a picture of their general experience, we asked about experiences in relation to social isolation and physical activity.

Summary

Bletchley House is a residential care and nursing home. It is registered to provide personal and nursing care for up to 44 residents, for adults under and over 65.

Bletchley House has, historically, been inconsistent in the results of the regulatory inspections by the Care Quality Commission, and the Milton Keynes Council Quality and Compliance team. The care home goes from Good to Requires Improvement and back again from visit to visit. Our own team have visited 4 times prior to this unannounced visit, with equally inconsistent results. Milton Keynes Council Adult Social Care commissioners asked Healthwatch Milton Keynes to visit as the new Bletchley House management team felt that the care home had never had an Enter and view visit before.

On the basis of this visit, Bletchley House was observed to be clean and orderly, with a focus on improving the experience and well-being of the residents.

In respect of demographics:

In respect of demographics: -
Two residents were male
Five residents were female
One resident was under 60 years old

What we found

"We observed genuine care and affection in interactions between staff and residents. The residents clearly knew the staff well...

It was nice to see that all of the residents who are able to get out of bed, even if they chose to stay in their rooms, were up, washed, and dressed. One resident told us about how one of the staff help her to do her hair, and how much she enjoyed it.

The home seems to help make introductions between new residents and some of the others with similar interests which is a nice touch.
We noted that there were plenty of staff, all engaged in tasks but all managing to spend time with residents in the lounges...

We sat in on one of the quizzes and enjoyed seeing how much laughter and banter this created among the group. We were also impressed at the displays of the residents’ art and craft work; residents were quick to tell us which ones were theirs and were justifiably proud of their efforts. There are some very artistic and creative residents at Bletchley House, so it was nice to see that these interests and talents are given an outlet..."

What residents told us: 

“[I] don't join in many of the things but I like the quizzes and bingo - might do flower arranging as I asked for it.”

“New manager is very helpful and approachable - there are problems at the moment with the Agency staff though. They try to recruit permanent staff but can’t get the right people.”

“The staff are nice to me.”

"There are two choices for everything - I don't know if they would make anything else – it’s so good, I have never had to ask for anything different."

Recommendations included:

• Consider ways of alleviating loneliness for those residents who are confined to their rooms, more one to one time with care staff, more time in group situations, enlist the help of volunteer groups such as befriending services to sit and talk with residents.
• Consider adding menu planning to the regular residents meeting agenda to allow residents a level of autonomy in their diet.