Brightwater Madeley

Great nursing home and really great and caring staff and nurses

Mum was a resident in Brightwater Madeley’s memory support wing for 18 months. The staff there were caring and wonderful. Mum especially loved the food. The physical living space was bright, clean and fresh, with the highlight for our nature-loving mum being the easily accessible lovely central garden area which she used daily. We, the family, got to know the regular staff by name over time, and any feedback - either positive or negative - was always encouraged and followed up on where required. Regular meetings were held for interested families to attend, so we had direct contact with the managers and allied health staff, and always felt like we were a big part of mum’s overall care. Mum’s end of life care and support for family was second to none, led by the extremely caring and capable nursing managers. We feel so fortunate that Brightwater Madeley was the new home we could rely on to care for mum. A heartfelt thank you, again, to everyone involved.

Brightwater Madeley Residential Care Facility, in the time that my wife has been a resident, has taken major steps towards providing a first class experience for residents. The management is proactive and receptive to families and their issues, the staff are caring and supportive of the residents and their needs; and the quality of the meals has improved enormously. There is now a wide range of activities provided throughout the day that residents can do if they so desire. Yes, like in all facilities, on occasion issues do occur but when raised they are dealt with professionally and with the best interest of the residents in mind. I have no hesitation in recommending this facility

An absolute disgrace of a place whose team care just about sales and don’t value looking after your loved ones. We had organised a respite arrangement into a full time care. After 3 weeks we were, then spoken to about us thinking whether our Dad go to the next stage of care. When we advised that we don’t think that is necessary, we were advised….by text mind you that not only his current room is no longer available, the next stage care room has gone too. This was on the afternoon prior to the respite ending and our dad would be kicked out in the morning. No phone call, no apology. We will not be dealing with Brightwater again and will be lodging something more official. Just putting this here now so that others don’t make the same mistake we did. The one star is for the staff who were doing the caring who were lovely.

The administration of this facility need to employ and train more staff (particularly carers, nurses and cleaners), in order to provide a better quality of care to elderly residents, many of whom have high needs, which are not being met in a timely manner. Residents in the dementia ward are left to their own devices day after day (either in their rooms or in front of the common room TV which plays the exact same thing every single day), and often have to wait for up to an hour for assistance to go to the toilet. In the meantime many of them wet themselves. To my mind this is simply not good enough. I have no problem with the staff, my problem lays squarely with administration/management who are not employing enough staff to meet the needs of residents. Residents pay a lot of money to stay here. Where is the money going? Employ more staff! There should also be more creative and social activities offered to residents more frequently - at least twice a week as a bare minimum. It is not good enough to just leave residents to sit in chairs with nothing to do all day. Staff here are spread very thinly and are required to look after a large number of high needs residents with minimal staff. I appreciate the care that staff try to provide but the problem is chronic under-staffing. Instead of making residents watch/listen to the same repetitive thing every single day (which is essentially mind-numbing "elevator or cafe music" paired with images of animals), how about show them a wide range of classic films and nature/historical documentaries? Surely that would be more interesting for them to watch! What I will also say is nurses should be more sensitive to patients in palliative care. Don't ignore them. Don't talk over the top of them. Listen to them. It may literally be their last day, so go out of your way to make them feel heard, valued and seen. This photo shows that activities are not happening. I saw that it was left blank for 3 weeks with nothing for residents to do. If I had to live here, I would be very sad. If I had to work here, I would be very sad. Do better.

My Mother stays here. She said at times her care can be inattentive, misses meals at times. Her bedside radio isn't sometimes put on. Overall a fair experience..