A CARE home has been told it needs to improve its care of elderly residents.

An inspection in June found that some residents were kept waiting for their lunch for up to 40 minutes and concerns were raised that one resident had not had either a bath or shower since their admission 29 days previously and no personal hygiene chart as to whether the patient was receiving a daily bed bath or wash could be found.

Farnworth Care Home, Church Street, provides accommodation for up to 120 people who require nursing and personal care.

At the time of the inspection 103 people, some with dementia, were being cared for at the home which is run by Abbey Healthcare (Farnworth) Limited.

The report into that inspection was published at the end of August, which showed that the home which was deemed as ‘good’ in effectiveness and responsiveness required improvements in the other three key areas of safety, caring and leadership.

Inspectors found that the service was not consistently safe and found that two wardrobes were not fixed to the wall and could be pulled over.

During the inspection they found it sometimes difficult to locate staff immediately because of the size and layout of the home

They found shortfalls in the safe handling of medicines on the Belmont unit, which had begun to be addressed.

In the Burnden unit not all prescribed medicines, which had a minimum time interval between doses, were given safely and oxygen cylinders were at the time insecure and written permission on the taking of over-the- counter medicines by residents’ GP was not in place and there was insufficient information to guide staff on covertly placing medication in food and drinks.

Despite praise from many of its residents and visitors, the CQC said: “This service cannot be judged as ‘good’ in the well led domain because we have identified a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Andrea Gamble the home’s regional operations director said: “We were extremely disappointed at the outcome of the recent inspection. The home has a history of full compliance over a number of years with good and positive outcomes and we believe that the home continues to provide an excellent level of service.

“The content of the report is overwhelmingly positive including feedback from all the stakeholders and the rating of Requires Improvement does not, in our opinion give a true reflection of the care provided or reflect the content of the report. The company has formally requested a ratings review under the CQC published guidelines.”