A Merseyside care home has been placed in special measures after residents were found with "unexplained" injuries and left waiting to go to the toilet.
Beechcroft Care Home, in Wirral, has been criticised in a shocking report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which gave the facility an overall rating of 'inadequate' - the lowest score available.
It said people living at the home on Bidston Road in Prenton were "not safe and were at risk of avoidable harm", listing a host of failures.
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The Wirral care home has since apologised, telling the ECHO it's working to address "all the shortcomings".
The report was published on May 3, and said: "Some people had unexplained bruises that had not been reported to the local authority safeguarding team.
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"Some people had sustained similar injuries over a significant period of time yet no consideration had been given to whether this indicated a pattern of potential abuse."
Under the heading of whether the service was 'safe', it listed a number of shortcomings.
Those included: "We observed several occasions when people were asking for support and did not receive it in an acceptable time. One person waited over 30 minutes to go to the toilet.
"We had considerable concerns about the safety of the people who lived in the home in the event of a fire.
"There were inadequate staffing arrangements in place to meet people's needs safely in the event of an emergency.
"Accidents had occurred when people were being supported by staff. There was no evidence that information about how these accidents had occurred was used by the manager or staff to prevent similar accidents occurring in the future.
"Some of the risk management guidance given to staff to follow was generic and unclear.
"For example, some people required support to change position in order to prevent pressure sores but staff had no guidance on how often they required this support. One person lived with a health condition but staff had no guidance on how to manage this condition or the signs or symptoms to spot in the event of ill-health."
The report came following an unannounced inspection back in March.
In the report under the heading of whether the service was 'effective', it revealed "widespread and significant shortfalls in people's care, support and outcomes", with some regulations "not met".
It added that people's fluid intake was "consistently poor", with residents "rarely" receiving anything to eat or drink after tea-time until breakfast the next day.
The facility holds up to 43 people who need help with their personal care, or nursing care and offers both long and short-term stays.
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Despite the bad rating, the report did raise a number of positives from the inspection.
It said staff interacted with people in a "kind and caring way", adding that they were "respectful towards people and patient".
However following the inspection the service was placed in special measures, meaning it will be kept under review, with a further inspection set to take place again in six months' time.
Concluding the report, the CQC warned the home: "If not enough improvement is made within this time frame so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service."
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It rated Beechcroft as 'inadequate' for the categories of 'safe', 'effective', 'responsive' and 'well-led'.
The rating for 'caring' was 'requires improvement', meaning an overall rating of 'inadequate'.
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The manager "did not provide any explanation" to the inspectors explaining the concerns, it said - "other than say that they would improve things".
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Flightcare Ltd, the firm responsible for the home, said the wellbeing of residents was "paramount".
A spokesperson said: "We would like to apologise to all our residents, their family and friends for having fallen below the standard of care that we expect all of our care homes to provide.
"We have taken on board everything that CQC have stated in their inspection report and are working closely with CQC and Wirral Council to address all the shortcomings in an open and transparent manner.
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"Since the inspection in March 2019, a new management team has been put in to place and significant progress has been made.
"We will continue to make further improvements and will monitor the progress, to ensure that it is maintained."
