A struggling Ashill care home is in special measures after health inspectors found ‘widespread and serious failings’.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission visited the Lodge Care Home last August and judged it to be inadequate in four out of five assessment criteria, including safety and effectiveness.

The fifth standard, assessing how caring the service is, was judged to require improvement.

Inspectors felt there had been “a significant deterioration in the quality of care” since the Lodge’s last inspection in October 2014.

The care home, which houses up to 20 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia, was found to have nine breaches of regulation affecting “the quality and safety” of care.

A report into the findings stated: “People’s safety had been compromised. The provision of training had deteriorated over the last year so that some new staff had little or no training and induction.”

The CQC brought forward its inspection of the Lodge to August 21 after discovering “concerning” information about people being got out of bed very early in the morning.

The report said: “Institutional routines had developed which did not promote care...and unreasonably compromised people’s choices which resulted in some people being woken up to get out of bed from 3.15am.” It described this practice as ‘potentially abusive’.

The report noted people who were up early “were not offered a drink until 6.15am, even though some of them had been up for at least two hours”.

A review of staff training showed that “very little” had taken place since 2013, and a lack of “appropriate induction programmes” for new staff was revealed.

The report also noted a “lack of transparency and objectivity in responding to and learning from complaints and incidents”.

The CQC had not been notified of any deaths or other incidents at the Lodge since 2012.

However, the admissions record showed there had been seven deaths at the home since the start of 2013 which had not been reported, including one in March 2015 which was unexpected and referred to the coroner.

The report did note medicines were “managed in a safe way” and, despite inconsistencies in care, some staff were seen to interact with residents in a “warm and kind manner”.

“Staff told us they enjoyed working at the home,” it added.

The home’s owners were contacted for comment but did not respond.