A CARE home in Looe has been told by the Care and Quality Commission (CQC) that it requires improvement, following an inspection report published this week.

During an unannounced visit to Tregertha Court in March, inspectors found that the home did not have enough staff on duty to keep residents safe and meet their needs.

Employees at the home were described as 'kind and compassionate staff who treat people with dignity and respect' and positive points were made by inspectors, residents and families about the home. But the report highlighted that the three staff on duty did not have enough time to attend to the needs of the 22 residents present on the day of the inspection, some of whom had 'high dependency due to their frailty or dementia'.

One person was observed to be in pain and distress while waiting 20 minutes for a carer to provide medication. Not enough was being done, said inspectors, to provide activities to fulfil the residents' emotional and social needs, and staff complained of being too busy to interact with the people they were caring for.

Overall, Tregertha Court was found to be 'good' in two out of five of the inspection criteria, but was judged to 'require improvement' in the remaining three areas.

Tregertha Court is one of seven care homes operated by the Morleigh Group in Cornwall. Four of these homes, including St Theresa's in Callington, and Elmsleigh in Par, have been recently judged by the Care and Quality Commission to require improvement. Alexandra House in Porth, Newquay, is to be shut down by Morleigh following an inspection in January which deemed the home to be failing in two key areas. The provider has stated that the home 'had been running at a financial loss for some time' and that 'challenges in recruiting qualified nursing staff' had also contributed to the situation.

Cornwall Council took the decision to stop referring people to any of the Morleigh homes in January but this restriction has now been lifted for all of the remaining homes except for Elmsleigh in Par, the provider said.

Speaking with reference to the home in Looe, head of operations with Morleigh Sharon Wilkinson said: 'We are aware of the CQC's report with regards to Tregertha Court, and we're already working hard to address the issues raised.

'The group is already reviewing its management and training systems, including how to integrate the new Care Certificate that our staff will require, and one of the ways to achieve this is to recruit even more care and support staff across the group.'