St Anne's care home praised by care regulator

A care home in Cornwall has once again been rated outstanding by inspectors from regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Anchor’s St Anne’s Care Home, situated in Saltash, Cornwall, which was inspected in March cares for up to 33 residents. The home is one of ten Anchor care homes classed as outstanding.

St Anne’s was praised by the CQC under their inspection process which rates care homes as either outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate.

The home received outstanding ratings in four of the five categories and were praised for delivering excellent ‘person-centred care’ and ‘understanding the needs of the people they supported.’

The CQC inspection report, which can be found on the regulator’s website, highlighted the following examples of high standards of care at St Anne’s Care Home:

• Residents were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.
• Enhancing the environment for residents with dementia friendly themed corridors, including photographs of Brunel bridge, which is situated close to the home, being converted into wallpaper and placed on corridor walls. 
• Facilitating intergenerational programme initiatives with schools in the locality.
• The use of assistive technology to increase resident’s independence and to bring new experiences to people. WIFI available in all rooms, helping people to maintain and develop relationships with those close to them using Skype or mobile phones. The use of a Virtual Reality headset to enable people to have experiences that they would not usually be able to have and use of an interactive electronic ‘magic’ table.
• Staff continued to have a deep understanding of people’s dementia care needs.

In the CQC inspection which can be found on the regulator’s website, a healthcare professional said: “I think people are extremely lucky to live here. The environment really is wonderful. The surroundings are very good indeed. So much to look at and occupy people.”

One relative told the inspectors: ‘I cannot praise the care my mother has had at St Anne’s enough. I have over 40 years of nursing experience and the care and emotional support I have seen since my mother was admitted here is exemplary. Simply superb.”

Care Home Manager Neil McCalley said everyone at the home was thrilled even more so at this current time because they work so hard to maintain high standards of care.

Neil said: “We all know St Anne’s is a great place for older people to live but to be given such praise from the regulator is so rewarding. I am delighted that the report again acknowledges and recognises the contribution of the whole staff team, not just the excellent standard of care being delivered daily”.

“We are proud of the care we provide and especially at this time it is even more imperative that we support residents to stay connected with their loved ones through the coming weeks. We continue to help them use Skype, Facetime and emails to keep in touch with family and friends and we continue to use technology to support activities.

“We along with many other Anchor care homes are calling for people to send in letters, pictures and poems to our residents. This is part of the #BeKindToOneAnother campaign that is being run on Anchor social media channels. We have already received drawings this week from four-year-old children in Plymouth. Please keep sending them into us, the residents are so happy to be receiving them.”

Resident Robert Herbert aged 82, who lives at St Anne’s with his wife Marina said: “I am happy that the home has achieved another outstanding rating and improved their previous rating in a further two categories. You have everything you need here, and the staff are amazing. With the current situation they are providing even more support, I cannot praise them enough. We encourage children and people to write to us, it has been lovely reading the letters and looking at the drawings.”

For more information on Anchor’s St Anne’s - Saltash contact 0800 731 2020.

Please view #BeKindToOneAnother for more details on the campaign.