A CARE home has been placed in special measures after an inspection revealed a string of concerns.

The report on Godden Lodge, in Hart Road, Thundersley, said incidents of medication errors were high while patients at risk of poor nutrition and hydration were not properly monitored and recorded to “ensure unnecessary dehydration”.

The report also revealed patients “did not always feel they were treated with care and kindness or feel listened to”.

Godden Lodge, which is run by HC-One Oval Limited, had already come under fire in April 2019 where it received a rated as “requires improvement”.

However, by December, a further inspection was carried out following concerns raised from a specific incident by Castle Point Council.

In that inspection, it was found that significant improvements were required and an “inadequate” rating was given.

The fresh inspection has added further woe and the home will be kept under review and will re-inspected within six months.

The home was criticised for being under-staffed and the report stated there was a high use of agency staff.

Patients said they felt staff did not have the time to spend with them.

The report concluded with: “The overall rating for this service is ‘inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’.

“This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within six months to check for significant improvements.

“If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe, and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures.

“This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service.”

The home provides accommodation for adults needing nursing or personal care, for dementia, physical disabilities, treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

A spokesman for HC-One, said: “The health, safety and wellbeing of our Residents is our number one priority, and we take all feedback from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) seriously.

“While we are pleased our colleagues were described as “caring” and “friendly”, we were deeply disappointed by the CQC’s overall findings from the inspection in December.

“We acknowledge we fell short of the high standards our residents rightfully expect and deserve.

“Following the inspection, we immediately implemented a comprehensive action plan, which is being overseen by our senior regional team

"This includes updating our residents’ care plans to reflect their current needs and implementing robust medication monitoring processes. The home is receiving additional support from the local pharmacy as well as our clinical team to sustain the improvements already made in medicine administration.

“Further, our learning and development team is supporting colleagues to make sure they have completed additional comprehensive refresher training.

“We’re pleased that since the inspection, we have reduced our reliance on agency staff, which means that our Residents are receiving a greater continuity of care.

“We are working closely with all relevant authorities and have already made progress since the CQC visited. We are determined to continue to make and sustain further improvements.”