FRAIL residents were left in distress and called “derogatory-sounding” names by some staff members at a dementia care home, inspectors found.

The Care Quality Comm-ission carried out an unannounced inspection of Fordingbridge Care Home after being contacted by concerned whistleblowers.

The Station Road home, operated by Sentinel Health Care, failed all 10 aspects of the inspection and enforcement action was taken in two areas – respecting and involving people who use services and management of medicines.

Sentinel Health Care’s managing director said they had reacted quickly to the report.

The CQC has since re-inspected the home and their new report is expected soon.

During their June visit, inspectors observed that most staff spoke to people with kindness and respect but that not all employees were caring, compassionate and responsive.

An inspector had to ask staff to help a resident who had slipped down in their chair and become uncomfortable. Staff had told the resident to wait 10 minutes for assistance.

On another occasion, a resident’s request for help was ignored by up to four staff members who were nearby.

And inspectors say they observed a staff member calling two people by abbreviated names which sounded derogatory and two instances where residents were spoken to in a manner “that did not respect their dignity”.

The report also claims the home did not have appropriate arrangements in place to manage, store and handle medicine. They found two unlabelled dropper bottles of liquid on the drugs trolley and a tablet on a chair in a bedroom.

Al Donnelly, managing director of Sentinel Health Care Ltd, stressed five of the 10 standards tested were classed as minor impact and could be quickly resolved while three were moderate impact.

He said a minority of staff had been spoken to and dealt with appropriately, while the home has also improved its training and recruitment, as well as introducing a new system for clinical and medicine control with an external auditor.

“We take the wellbeing, care and dignity of our residents very seriously,” he said.

“It was therefore very distressing to read the CQC report. However, we have immediately addressed all the issues and now hope we can move forward and turn Fordingbridge into the centre of excellence it was always designed to be.”