EMI residential care help

[belle9664]

Hi,

My grandfather was diagnosed with dementia 10 years ago and has been cared for at home by family as well as home careers until January this year when we felt it was in his best interests for him to go into EMI residential care. After previously having bad experiences of respite care, we are aiming, as a family, to keep a close an eye on his care as possible. For this reason, I was wondering if anybody could help me solve a issue about staffing levels in an EMI residential home. As far as I am aware, there are no legal staffing levels within residential care homes but after visiting my grandfather last night to find two careers (no senior or nurses) caring for 27 residents, I became slightly concerned considering all residents are dementia patients and at least 8 require assistance with eating, walking etc and 4 are bed bound.

If anybody could help me in finding out if this is an adequate/acceptable ratio, please let me know!

Thank you

 

[Katrine]

That sounds about right for night-time but I share your concerns about there being no management level staff there. However, someone may be on call and will get to the NH quickly if needed. I would raise this with the manager. It might have been a night where someone was off sick, but in that case they should have provided cover. In larger homes that ratio is OK because staff can move from unit to unit as required.

 

[belle9664]

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[belle9664]

That sounds about right for night-time but I share your concerns about there being no management level staff there. However, someone may be on call and will get to the NH quickly if needed. I would raise this with the manager. It might have been a night where someone was off sick, but in that case they should have provided cover. In larger homes that ratio is OK because staff can move from unit to unit as required.

Thanks for your help. One of the careers last night was actually bank staff as they were understaffed already. My concern is that this isn't just one odd occasion but has been the case a few times. I left last night just before midnight and about half of the residents were still fully clothed in the lounge waiting to be put to bed as it takes two members of staff per resident to get them prepared for bed meanwhile the other 26 are left unattended. I will definitely be putting forward my concerns to the manager on Monday morning but first wanted to find out how many carers other homes have in comparison

 

[Lady Phoenix]

It really depends on the category of the home, but assuming its high dependancy then at night the official ruling is as follows

Homes with 17 - 30 Residents
Two members of staff on waking duty throughout the night and one other on call
or immediately available.


I would suggest then that this is not 100% legit for two reasons

1- Who is "immediately available". I would assume this is the home manager but can he/she get to the home within a reasonable amount of time (I would consider immediately as meaning within 5-10 minutes)

2 - Staffing levels. I would want to see 3 there. This is because each member of staff is legally entitled to a break. When they take this break they convert from "waking shift" to "On call - available immediately", so for 2 hours of the shift (Assuming they get an hours break) you will have 1 member of staff and 2 immediately available of which one of those may be miles away.

They arent breaking any rules but the are stretching them to near breaking point.

 

[belle9664]

It really depends on the category of the home, but assuming its high dependancy then at night the official ruling is as follows

Homes with 17 - 30 Residents
Two members of staff on waking duty throughout the night and one other on call
or immediately available.


I would suggest then that this is not 100% legit for two reasons

1- Who is "immediately available". I would assume this is the home manager but can he/she get to the home within a reasonable amount of time (I would consider immediately as meaning within 5-10 minutes)

2 - Staffing levels. I would want to see 3 there. This is because each member of staff is legally entitled to a break. When they take this break they convert from "waking shift" to "On call - available immediately", so for 2 hours of the shift (Assuming they get an hours break) you will have 1 member of staff and 2 immediately available of which one of those may be miles away.

They arent breaking any rules but the are stretching them to near breaking point.

Thank you so much for your help. I understand that it is not legally wrong but I will be addressing these issues with the manager tomorrow morning as you have just made a very valid point about staff breaks.

 

[Not so Rosy]

I can't really say I had thought much about staffing ratios as Dad doesn't need any physical help.

Just before I left Dads unit tonight I looked on the Daily News Board and the staffing ratios were on there. 2 Registered Nurses and 4 Healthcare Assistants for the overnight shift looking after 14 residents. I assume because it is an NHS facility they are more heavily staffed.