All the patients we spoke with were pleased with the service provided and positive about the nursing staff who delivered it. We were told that staff were caring, helpful and provided patients with good information. Comments included , “First class” and that the staff had, “All done their job very well.” A few patients had experienced cancelled appointments.

Staff in two of the areas we inspected told us of concerns about the time they were able to spend with patients. They also raised concerns about staffing levels. We found variations in staffing levels and management of sickness and other absences. In addition, some staff training had not been updated in these areas. The third area was not experiencing the same issues and had well managed caseloads.

Record keeping was also varied, from good to poor, but with some improvement seen since the last inspection. Where audit and quality monitoring were in place it was not always clear where or how the local data was fed into service wide reports.

We spoke with ten patients and two relatives. Most patients and relatives spoke positively

about the service received from the district nursing service, and patients said they felt safe.

The majority said that they felt privacy and dignity issues were managed well by staff, and

they felt informed about their treatment.

Two patients commented about cancelled appointments and the fact that they never knew

when nurses were coming.

Everyone said they were aware of the complaints process and the majority of patients had

not felt the need to use this.

At this inspection we looked at the community nursing services based at Eastbourne Park Practice.

All the patients we spoke with were pleased with the service provided and positive about the nursing staff who delivered it. We were told that staff responded to patients’ needs and none had experienced any visit cancellations.

We spoke with 14 members of staff on the day and four more by telephone after the visit. Staff spoken with included senior nurses and managers, district nurses, community staff nurses, a health care assistant and administration staff. We were told that staffing levels were improved with staff generally able to spend sufficient time with patients.

Patient record keeping in respect of care and treatment provided demonstrated improvement. There were data collection, monitoring and audits in place. We found evidence of risk management and initiatives in place to mitigate risk.

Staff told us of a reduction in administrative staff that meant that some record keeping was not complete. Discharged patient records were not archived and could not easily be located when required.