HOME care support for patients who have just left hospital requires improvement say health inspectors.
Wokingham Borough’s short-term assessment re-ablement team (START) was assessed by the care quality commission (CQC) in September and the service was rated ‘good’ in three categories.
But leadership and safety were rated as needing improvement after inspectors found 13 incidents where medicine errors had occurred.
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Cllr Charles Margetts, health boss at Wokingham Borough Council (WBC), said: “The recent START inspection report is disappointing.
“However, we’re confident Optalis has robust plans in place to turn this around quickly, and the service will return to its ‘good rating’ along with all the other Optalis regulated services in Wokingham Borough.
“We’re reassured the action required to improve does not affect our customers in terms of care and support. Customer feedback on the service remains positive.”
The service - run by Optalis for Wokingham borough residents - supports patients for six weeks after discharge and aims to help them live a “fulfilled life as they had done” before being hospitalised.
Feedback from patients "indicated they felt safe" but the service was told to make improvements in this area after inspectors found 13 incidents where medicine errors had occurred.
Errors included administering medicine from the wrong day, not recording medicine usage correctly and medicines being found wrapped up in tissue.
Despite this, no serious harm came of these errors and “feedback from people clearly indicated that they felt safe with the support the staff provided”.
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CQC inspectors also criticised the governance of the service after pointing out how the provider has operated without a manager since April 2019.
Audits were found to have missing information and there was not “robust governance” of documentation.
Helen Woodland, operations director at Optalis, said: “Whilst the outcome of this inspection is disappointing, we have an action plan to implement the improvement required which will swiftly address the action.
“The inspector raised no concerns over the care or support customers receive. The inspector also reported ‘people felt they were in safe hands’.
“We also seek regular feedback, which tells us customer satisfaction levels are consistently high across the whole of the service.
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“Overall Optalis delivers good quality support - this is evidenced as all other regulated Wokingham services are rated as ‘GOOD’”.
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