A COCKERMOUTH care home that has been placed in 'special measures' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has hit out at the health watchdog's highly critical report.

The rebuttal from Holmewood Residential Care Home, on Lamplugh Road, comes after the CQC published a report following an inspection in July and August 2023 that rated it 'inadequate' in all areas and placed it in 'special measures to protect people'.

According to the report, inspectors found a raft of issues.

These included that people 'were at risk because of poor infection prevention and control practices'; systems 'weren’t always safe or robust to ensure suitable staff were recruited to work with vulnerable adults'; and information about risks to people was 'not always effectively assessed, monitored, or managed'.

"People did not receive kind, compassionate care," the report added. "On occasions, people were crying as they had not received assistance they needed."

The CQC previously rated the Cockermouth care home 'requires improvement' in October 2022, and Karen Knapton, the health watchdog's deputy director of operation in the north, explained how the actions taken in the latest report reflect the 'serious concerns' from its July 2023 inspection.

She said:  "When we inspected Holmewood Residential Care Home, we found a home where leaders didn’t have a good understanding of the issues it faced which had resulted in deterioration in the standard of care being provided since our last inspection.

"We found incredibly serious safety concerns that leaders were unaware of, and they must urgently address these to prevent people from being harmed.   

"We will continue to monitor the service closely to ensure the necessary improvements are made and keep people safe during this time.

"If improvements are not made by the time we next inspect, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action".

Next actions could include a reinspection to check for significant improvements, or a proposal to cancel the provider's registration, the CQC said.

However,  in response to the report, Kroll, who took over as the administrator of the care home in November 2022, has lodged a 'formal complaint about the conduct of the inspection' and 'strongly disputes' much of the detail it presents, labelling it 'inaccurate, exaggerated and misleading'.

Phil Dakin, joint administrator at Kroll, said: "We acknowledge there were some shortfalls with regards to the state of the home at the time of the inspection, however, we feel strongly that the details in this report are misleading and we have raised this directly with CQC.

"The report contains a number of inaccuracies and fails to highlight much of the positive evidence provided about the care given to the residents.

"We take any allegations of inadequate service very seriously and feel that we have sufficiently addressed the relevant concerns raised by the regulator.

"The team at Holmewood Residential Care Home have worked incredibly hard to ensure that we can continue to provide the level of care needed to our residents."