Frequently Asked Questions

What are the costs for my care?

The care fees are set on an individual basis depending on your needs. Our managers or our directors are happy to discuss with with you and help to support you in making your care choices.

Do the government/local authority contribute to care costs?

Yes. The local authority makes an assessment for the personal care allowance and the nursing care allowance for any self funded residents. If personal funds are of a certain amount the local authority may pay a greater amount towards the cost your/your loved one’s care. For more information you may wish to visithttp://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/1347/social_care_and_health

Does the government allowance (Free Personal and Nursing Care) get subtracted from my bill?

We invoice the local authority on your behalf. This occurs in arrears by a specific schedule dictated by the local authority, either calendar monthly or 4 weekly depending on which council. The home then credits your nominated bank account with the money as soon as it is received from the local authority usually within a 3-5 day BACS cycle. We can provide you with a specific payment schedule for each council

Do you care for residents with dementia?

Yes, we care for residents with dementia needs. Once we have a vacancy, our Care Home Manager would arrange a nursing assessment to ensure we can meet all of your care needs. Our members of staff have the requisite skills and training to care for dementia sufferers.

What sort of training do you provide for staff?

We are committed to the development and training of our staff. We are registered for 24 hour nursing care so we always have at least 1 fully qualified registered nurse on duty supervising our care teams within each of our homes. Our Care Home Managers are also fully trained registered nurses. All general/mental nurses are registered with the Nurse & Midwifery Council (NMC) and are required by law to keep up their training and competency on an annual basis. The Home ensures that all our nurses are active on the register and are fit to practice.

Our aim is to ensure the care teams are qualified to at least SVQ Level 2 in Health & Social Care. We have invested in qualified in house SVQ Assessors who provide our care assistants with the support and training to gain a Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) in Health & Social Care awarded by the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA). We also ensure that all our staff are fully competent in moving and handling techniques, infection control, Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA), Health & Safety, Fire Safety, tissue viability and pressure care awareness, food hygiene and practice, palliative care and person centred care as well as many more operational practices delivered through our in house and external training courses. Our staff development plan also covers our statement of aims and objectives, which ensure our staff are also educated in our philosophy of care.

Can I be involved in decisions made in my care?

We operate a participation strategy; whereby we encourage our service users and/or their relatives/representatives to be involved in all of the care decisions as much or as little as you choose.

What is the level of staffing like in your homes?

Our managers regularly assess the care needs of each individual resident and we staff our homes accordingly to ensure we have more than enough staffing cover to assist you. We always staff to at least the minimum numbers recommended by our regulator. We also have built a staff bank to ensure continuity of the staff that cares for you.

Can my family or friends visit me in the home?

We have open visiting within homes, although we do suggest that your visits do not clash with the meal times.

What if I do not like something on the menu?

No need to worry, if there is something you do not like, please speak to one of our members of staff and our chef will arrange for an alternative. We can also provide you with snacks and drinks throughout the day if you wish.

How can I raise any concerns during my stay?

Please feel free to discuss any of your concerns or worries with your key worker, any of the nurses or the Care Home manager. They will do their best to ensure you are 100% happy. If you feel uncomfortable we also have a suggestion/comment box, which you can use to raise any concerns anonymously. We always endeavour to satisfy your needs if however you wish to raise your concern further you can also contact our group manager or one of our directors. Any issue will be investigated in confidence and to your satisfaction.

What Activities do you provide?

We provide a number of varied activities both within our homes, or out with on regular trips, which are organised by our dedicated activities co-ordinators. We have a company mini bus, which is utilized regularly, and have many special events such as fireworks displays and Christmas pantomimes.

Am I able to smoke in the home?

The home is strictly a non-smoking environment.

Can I have pets visit?

Unfortunately, our policy is not permit animals within our services.

Can I bring my own furniture or personal items?

We encourage you to personalise your room as you like it. We do recommend all furniture, which you wish to bring into our homes, is discussed with our managers as we need to ensure everything is tested to meet our Fire/Health & Safety regulations.

Are you inspected by the regulator/ what are your care grades?

Yes we are inspected annually by the care inspectorate (www.careinspectorate.co.uk) in which our homes are scored on a 1-6 basis, 6 being the best. Our care homes are graded very highly.

Are there any extra costs out with my care fees?

We are happy to provide a list of sundry services (e.g. toothbrush, soap, razors etc), which are chargeable by quarterly invoice in arrears. We also have an in house hairdressing service, as well as regular visits from chiropodists, aromatherapists and we can also arrange for specialist physiotherapy.

If you require a telephone line in your room, or wish to order newspapers or magazines, please speak to a Staff Nurse who will be happy to advise on how to arrange.

Data Protection Policy

Data Protection Policy

  1. Business details

This is the privacy notice for the Lindemann Healthcare group which covers Thorburn Manor Limited, Lorimer House Limited, Morningside Manor Limited & Jubilee House Limited.

Our registered office is at 29 York Place Edinburgh, EH1 3HP

 

The above Homes are registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide personal care to elderly resident within each of our residential Homes

  1. Aims of this notice

Lindemann Healthcare is required by law to tell you about your rights and our obligations regarding our collecting and processing any of your personal information, which you might provide to us. We have a range of policies and procedures to ensure that any personal information you supply is only with your active consent and will always be held securely and treated confidentially in line with the applicable regulations. We have listed the relevant documents in a later section (6) and can make any available.

  1. What personal information we collect about: a) service users b) employees and c) third parties
  2. Service users. As a registered care provider, we must collect some personal information on our service users, including financial information, which is essential to our being able to provide effective care and support. The information is contained in individual files (manual and electronic) and other record systems, all of which are subject to strict security and authorised access policies. Personal information that becomes inactive, eg from enquiries or prospective users who do not enter the service is also kept securely for as long as it is needed, before being safely disposed of.

 

  1. Employees and volunteers. The service operates a safe recruitment policy to comply with the regulations in which all personal information obtained, including CVs and references, financial informaiton is, like service users’ information, securely kept, retained and disposed of in line with data protection requirements. All employees are aware of their right to access any information about them.

 

  1. Third parties. All personal information obtained about others associated with the delivery of the care service, including contractors, visitors, etc will be protected in the same ways as information on service users and employees.

 

 

  1. How we collect information

The bulk of service users’, employees’ and thirds parties’ personal information is collected directly from them or through form filling, mainly manually, but also electronically for some purposes, eg when contacting the service through its website.

With service users, we might continue to build on the information provided in enquiry and referral forms, and, for example, from needs assessments, which feed into their care and support plans.

With employees, personal information is obtained directly and with consent through such means as references, testimonials and criminal records (DBS) checks. When recruiting staff, we seek applicants explicit consent to obtain all the information needed for us to decide to employ them.

All personal information obtained to meet our regulatory requirements will always be treated in line with our explicit consent, data protection and confidentiality policies.

  1. What we do with personal information

All personal information obtained on service users, employees and third parties is used only to ensure that we provide a service, which is consistent with our purpose of providing a person-centred care service, which meets all regulatory standards and requirements. It will not be disclosed or shared for any other purpose.

  1. How we keep your information safe

As already stated, the service has a range of policies that enable us to comply with all data protection requirements.  The foremost are:

  • Data protection policy
  • Record Keeping
  • Consent to Care and Treatment
  • Complaints policy
  • Safe staff recruitment and selections
  • Compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation
  1. With whom we might share information
  • We only share the personal information of service users, employees and others with their consent on a “need to know” basis, observing strict protocols in doing so. Most information sharing of service users’ information is with other professionals and agencies involved with their care and treatment. Likewise, we would not disclose information about our employees without their clear agreement, eg when providing a reference.
  • The only exceptions to this general rule would be where we are required by law to provide information, eg to help with a criminal investigation. Even when seeking to notify the local authority of a safeguarding matter or the Care Quality Commission of an incident that requires us to notify it, we would only do so with consent or ensure that the information provided is treated in confidence.
  • Where we provide information for statistical purposes, the information is aggregated and provided anonymously so that there is no privacy risk involved in its use.
  1. How personal information held by the care provider can be accessed
  • There are procedures in place to enable any staff member, employee or third party whose personal information we possess and might process in some way to have access to that information on request through a subject access request. The right to access includes both the information and any uses which we might have made of the information.

 

 

  1. How long we keep information
  • There are strict protocols in place that determine how long the organisation will keep the information, these are set out in our retention schedule.
  1. Your rights
  • Under the Data Protection Law (GDPR) you have a number of rights. These are:
    • Right to Confirmation and Access
    • The right to confirm what personal data is being held and to what purpose it is being used.
    • To obtain copies of the personal data that is being held about you.
    • Right to Be Forgotten (Right to Erasure). Where it is legal for us to do so and does not impact on our ability to provide care or comply with our duty to other employees or service users.
    • The right to object to processing of data
    • The right to rectification of data
    • The right to withdrawal of Consent and/or Limit Processing
    • Right to Data Transfer and request data format
    • The Right to Complain

 

  • If at any time you feel that we have failed to safeguard your information appropriately you have the right to complain.
  • In the first instance we would ask you to contact us and allow us to investigate and identify any issues you may have, by contacting us by email our Data Protection Officer on HR@lindemann.healthcare.
  • You do however have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and they can be contacted here:
  • Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, +44 (0) 303 123 1113, Email: casework@ico.org.uk. Website: https//ico.org.uk.

 

  1. Security
  • We operate a Privacy by Design and By Default policy. This means that before we use your data we have already considered the potential impact on you were your data to be lost, stolen, shared or compromised.
  • Consequently, we may also need to sometimes undertake further security and screening questions when undertaking our routine dealings with you these are there to protect your personal data and security.
  • Whilst we undertake all reasonable precautions, encryption, software updates and patches, we cannot guarantee the safety of data transmitted over the internet.
  1. How we will respond to a data breach
  • In the event of a data breach of your personal data, which means:
  • “The unintended loss, destruction amendment or disclosure of personal data”
  • We will first do all that is necessary in order to minimise the impact on you, identify any potential malicious third-party, identify any third-parties that may also be impacted and take all reasonable efforts to ensure that you are notified.
  • In the event that we are notified by a third-party of a breach, in their systems, we will undertake the same level of efforts.
  • We will undertake this communication either directly with you as an individual or by sending out a public notification.
  • At the same time, we will comply with the current law in respect of informing the appropriate supervisory authority which is currently the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). We are under a legal requirement to report data breaches to the ICO.
  1. How we keep our privacy policies up to date
  • The staff appointed to control and process personal information in our organisation are delegated to assess all privacy risks continuously and to carry out comprehensive reviews of our data protection policies, procedures and protocols at least annually.

 

  • Just a wee note to say THANK YOU to all the staff for the kindness and care you all gave to my sister. Love and best wishes from Anne Carruthers.

    Anne Carruthers
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