CARERS at a nursing home raised concerns about its low staffing levels and ‘lack of care’.

Several staff at Lake View Nursing Home in Withnell, near Chorley, spoke with inspectors during a recent visit, saying there was a ‘definite lack of staff’ which had led to various problems at the 48-bed home.

Their comments were contained in a damning report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which found the Chorley Road home failed to meet all six of the essential standards examined.

The inspectors found staff did not want to work on the upper floor, where there were residents with ‘challenging behaviour’ and a ‘strong smell of urine’ in the corridor.

They also found that some residents had not been outside the care home grounds in the past six months.

One staff member told the inspectors: “The care is lacking.

“There is no quality time to spend with residents and nobody gives us any support.

“If the manager is here, she does anything she can to help but I think her hands are tied.”

And another said: “There is no activities co-ordinator in post, which has increased the number of challenging behaviour episodes.

“We are having problems with people as they have nothing else to do, they are bored.

“Care assistants are trying but do not have the time.”

Although residents and their families spoke highly of the permanent carers, the home was said to be overly-reliant on agency staff who did not know the residents or provide the same level of care as permanent staff.

One resident had been forced to sleep with their room light on, as the light switch had been taped over due to a leak from the room above, the report added.

Inspectors said that the home failed to meet standards around the care and welfare of residents or management of medicines.

It also failed on safety and suitability of premises, staffing, monitoring the quality of service and record-keeping.

If improvements are not made, the CQC has a range of enforcement powers which include restricting the services that a provider can offer, or, in the most serious cases, suspending or cancelling a service.

It can also issue financial penalty notices and cautions or prosecute the provider for failing to meet essential standards.

A spokesman for the home, which is run by European Care (UK) Limited, said: “We are working closely with the CQC and other authorities.

“We take feedback from the CQC very seriously and, following their inspection in March, we immediately put in place an action plan to address their concerns.”