# First Choice Medical Solutions Ltd

First Choice Medical Solutions Ltd is a CQC-regulated home-care agency in Waltham Cross.

## CQC Ratings

| Key question | Rating |
| --- | --- |
| Overall | Good |
| Safe | Good |
| Effective | Good |
| Caring | Good |
| Responsive | Good |
| Well-led | Good |

Rating published: 19/02/2025

## Practical info

- Postcode: EN8 0DW
- Registered manager: Clark, Darren
- Local authority: Hertfordshire
- Region: East
- City: Waltham Cross
- Last CQC check: 19/Feb/2025 - 00:00

## Inspection findings

### caring

- Finding
  - Is the service caring?
  - Published: 2022-04-30

### effective

- Finding
  - Supporting people to eat and drink; Assessing people's needs and choices
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Ensuring consent to care and treatment in line with law and guidance
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Staff support: induction, training, skills and experience
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Is the service effective?
  - Published: 2022-04-30

### Other

- Finding
  - Evidence: Evidence that the service worked in partnership with other health and social care professionals.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Evidence: The registered manager carried out regular medicine audits.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Evidence: Staff followed good infection control measures and adhered to PPE policy.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Evidence: Staff worked with health professionals involved in people's care.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Evidence: People were generally happy with the support they received and felt safe with staff present in the supported living environment.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **communication_with_families** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: Relatives told us they had limited access to daily care records since these were electronic, therefore they felt less involved in people's care to support decision making.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **leadership** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: The registered manager failed to ensure they had a full understanding of their management responsibilities. They had little oversight of the service.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **supervision_appraisal** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: Some staff said they did not receive additional training in specific areas such as dementia, they had not received supervision and some staff had not received an appraisal.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **care_planning** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: Care plans did not give enough guidance to staff to know people's likes and dislikes or meal preferences. Risk assessments were not always clear or coordinated.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **consent_capacity** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: Some people's care records detailed they lacked capacity around their finances, personal care or understanding risks, however there was no MCA assessments in place.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **record_keeping** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: There were no records kept within the service to evidence that concerns were recorded, and actions were implemented to make the necessary improvements.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **incident_learning** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: There was no analysis done by the registered manager to understand the nature of incidents happening across the service. They had not looked for trends and patterns.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **governance** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: The lack of effective auditing of the service meant they failed to identify where improvements were needed around recruitment, training, supervision, keeping people safe.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **medication_management** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: Relatives told us they found medicines on the floor or some medicines not administered as prescribed although staff signed to indicate they had administered these.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **staff_competency** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: Staff had not had their competency assessed regularly and had no meaningful one to one support, supervision to discuss their performance, agree training needs.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **staff_training** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: Staff supported people with dementia, people with learning disability and autistic people, but they had little understanding about how to effectively support people.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **staffing_levels** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: Staff arrival times for care call visits varied by up to an hour. Relatives told us it was a regular occurrence that they were not alerted when staff were running late.
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- **safeguarding** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: The registered manager failed to report to CQC when they were made aware of a safeguarding concern where a person had their body hair shaved without seeking their consent.
  - Published: 2025-12-12

### responsive

- Finding
  - Is the service responsive?
  - Published: 2022-04-30

### safe

- Finding
  - Assessing risk, safety monitoring and management; Using medicines safely; Preventing and controlling infection
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Staffing and recruitment
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuse
  - Published: 2025-12-12

### well_led

- Finding
  - Managers and staff being clear about roles; Quality performance and regulatory requirements
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Promoting a positive culture; Continuous learning and improving care
  - Published: 2025-12-12
- Finding
  - Is the service well-led?
  - Published: 2022-04-30

## Source

Data published by the [Care Quality Commission](https://www.cqc.org.uk/) under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Canonical page: https://homecarecompass.co.uk/agency/1-6524869690

HomeCare Compass is an independent guide and is not affiliated with the CQC.