We found the following areas of good practice:

There was a strong person-centred culture. We observed staff showing kindness to patients and always preserved their dignity when performing personal care.

We found services were planned which took into account the needs of the patients and the units provided an alternative to acute care. Group therapy sessions took place which covered both mental and physical activities.

People had comprehensive holistic assessments completed of their needs; these included physical health and wellbeing, social, nutritional, and hydration needs. A multi-disciplinary team of staff were qualified and had the skills they needed to carry out their roles effectively and ensured patients received individualised care to meet their complex needs.

The head of services of both units and senior managers had the skills, knowledge, and experience to deliver good quality care. Staff we spoke to felt supported by the senior managers on both units. Research projects were being actively undertaken across Medway Community Healthcare.

However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

Community adult inpatient services were short staffed and relied on agency and bank nursing and therapy staff to address the shortfall.

The environment was not conducive to nursing rehabilitation patients as staff were unable to monitor and observe patients easily due to all patients being nursed in single rooms.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.