A PERSONAL care provider has been told to improve in key areas after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspector issued an overall 'requires improvement' ranking. 

Inspectors visited the MK Hospital@Home office located at 134 Highgate Kendal on 25 and 30 October 2023.

Mk Hospital@Home is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to older and younger adults. The service is based in Kendal and provides support to people in Kendal, South Lakeland and Furness.

At the time of the inspection, 37 people were receiving personal care.

The 'is the service safe?' question was downgraded from good at its previous inspection to requires improvement. 

The report states: "Some aspects of the service were not always safe and there was limited assurance about safety. There was an increased risk that people could be harmed."

Inspectors found no evidence that people had been harmed. However, the assessment, monitoring and mitigation of risks to the health, safety and welfare of people using the service was not robust, stressing that it placed people at risk of harm, said the report.

In the 'is the service well-led?' section of the report,  the inspector provided further detail on how the provider's systems and processes in place for the oversight, quality monitoring and safety of the service were 'not effective' in detecting the concerns found during the inspection in ensuring safe care and treatment.

The other sections of the report, including the provider's effectiveness, caringness and responsiveness, were rated good.

Eugene Nxumalo, chairman of MK Hospital@Home, said the company was proud to provide much-needed support to the local community in South Lakes and the surrounding communities.

Mr Nxumalo said: "We have been growing organically over the last 24 months and made significant investments to deliver a high level of care. For example, our In-House Systems Designer and Software Engineers have an advanced and specialised care management platform that is cloud-based and run on mobile as an app. This allows management and the front line to work together collaboratively to share information and update care information at real. This has cut most of the information gaps that have been discussed in the regulatory report.

"We had the regulatory inspection in the middle of our transition from paper to cloud and mobile systems hence the two areas of our five critical points need more management focus so we can complete the bureaucratic process."

"Overall, every day we deliver a high level of care, and we are growing fast and gaining market more market share via word of mouth and our Sainsbury advert. We know our competitors struggle to address many complex issues, such as severe weather; however, our processes and management structure have been tested because we invested upfront, allowing us more control, consistency, high quality and growth.

"We have a robust action plan, and within 45 days, we would have addressed those areas of development. We have completed our transition and fixed some of the points agreed in the action plan with regulatory."