A CARE home which opened in Poole amid much fanfare just one year ago has been savaged in a damning report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Inspectors, who visited Trinidad Village unannounced this summer, uncovered a catalogue of failings - including nine breaches of health and social care regulations.

Now they’ve placed the home operators, London Care Limited, in special measures - and warned them if they don’t improve within six months they face being shut down.

The report found:

  • Residents’ medicines were not being managed safely
  • Assessments of equipment, such as hoists, bed rails, and oxygen condensers, had not been carried out.
  • People’s rights to privacy were not being respected. For example, male staff had been sent to females who had specified they did not want to receive personal care from men.
  • One relative told inspectors their father had not had a shower for nine weeks.
  • Systems to ensure people were cared for in a safe way were ineffective.
  • There were not enough staff employed to meet people’s needs.

The CQC report also stated: “All of the feedback we received from people, relatives and staff was very poor with regard to the management of the service.

“Another person told us about when the extra care scheme was created last year and the contract was won by London Care. They said ‘we were promised so much at the beginning and now it has all gone to pot’.”

Trinidad Village in Rossmore Road was a £10 million project jointly funded by Borough of Poole (BOP) and the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA). It opened in December 2016, more than two years after getting the go-ahead, and features 54 on and two bedroom flats.

A London Care spokesman said: “Although we did inherit some challenges when we took over two of the three extra care schemes concerned, we do accept that we have not succeeded in delivering a sufficiently high quality of service.

“Even before this report was published, we had begun to put additional resources into making the necessary improvements, working closely with BOP, who continue to be a supportive partner to us.

“We are confident that a range of measures, including strengthening the management at each of the schemes, will deliver significant and rapid improvements.”

BOP’s Phil Hornsby, said: “We’re working with the provider to address the issues raised and help to rapidly improve their services.”