Working at The Gables

Staffing levels are stretched at times, causing delays in helping people and making staff feel busy.

One person said, “Never [enough staff]. There’s often a delay during the time they’re [staff] putting people to bed...” A staff member told us, “It’s not great, it takes a bit longer to get people washed and dressed, so some people have to wait.”

Medication errors occurred, like one person missing their medicine for three days and gaps in the records.

The service had recently changed their pharmacy... one person had not received one of their medicines for three days. Two out of the five medicine administration records we looked at contained gaps.

Activities are basic like chair exercises, board games and quizzes, nothing special or innovative.

The activity co-ordinator led chair-based exercises... brought out a board game and engaged the people in playing the quiz and memory game. One person said, 'The games that often get played are stupid card games. They [staff] could think of better things...'