A BOURNEMOUTH agency providing personal care in people’s homes says it has made all necessary improvements after being warned it could face action by the health and social care watchdog.

The warning follows an unannounced visit last month to Abacus Care in Holdenhurst Road by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission.

They were checking whether improvements required by a previous inspection had been made.

The inspectors found that the company was still not complying with regulations covering arrangements to administer medicines and staff recruitment procedures.

The CQC says information about people’s needs in relation to their medicines was not clear or comprehensive.

Medicines that had been administered to people were not always recorded properly, and it was unclear whether they were always receiving their medicines as prescribed.

Checks carried out on staff as part of the agency’s recruitment process had not been completed before they started to visit elderly clients.

There were gaps in employment history and references had not always been obtained.

But franchisee Maed Darwich said the number of problems was very small and the company had carried out immediate improvements to meet the CQC’s demands.

“All our clients and families are absolutely happy with all the services we provide. We’ve had no complaints and so many compliments,” he said.

Mr Darwich explained the agency had had some problems with information not being passed on by Dorset county council.

There had also been cases where clients had been out when carers arrived, so staff had been unable to fill in charts.

He added that staff, including women returning to work after taking time out to bring up a family, were now asked to provide a complete employment history.

And he said that in one case, a Polish woman had been taken on as a trainee before the company had obtained a written translation of her reference, which had been translated verbally by a colleague.