Inspectors have released a damning report about a former care home ranked inadequate in every department.

The Care Quality Commission inspected Ashmore House in February and found faults in standards across the board.

In their report published last Thursday, inspectors noted that the home, in Carlton Hill, lacked a working bathroom, leaving residents unable to bath or shower.

One resident told inspectors: “I only have a wash down. I used to have a bath and I liked that, but it’s broken and I haven’t had a bath for about two years.”

Inspectors said food on offer “did not look appetising” and said residents at risk of choking would have their food mashed together and served in a plastic bowl, leaving no individual flavours.

They said no fresh fruit or vegetables were being served, with staff cooking whatever was available in the freezers.

If residents wanted to drink squash or fruit juice, they were told to provide it themselves.

The report also highlighted the lack of choices for residents over their daily routines.

Inspectors wrote: “People were at risk of loneliness, isolation and boredom and had very little opportunity to participate in activities and pastimes they enjoyed. People told us they had nothing to do.”

They also raised concerns about the lack of respect of staff towards residents, a lack of a call bell system, an expired gas safety certificate, a locked fire door, and no temperature control for medicines.

Inspectors did not take any formal enforcement action, instead outlining the changes that would need to be made to turn the home’s fortunes around.

Baboo Ramchurn had been the manager of the home with his wife for eight years, and has since decided to close it due to devastating financial losses.

He said: “It was our decision to close. The CQC did not order us to. We looked after the residents and the families were happy with the care they were getting.

“We decided to close because it was not profitable. On average we only had six or seven people. The bigger homes have bigger profit margins.

“For the last three years, we were going into overdrafts. Last year we had a £15,000 loss, but still had to pay things like council tax on the home.

“We could have met the CQC requirements, but our concern as a business was our loss of a market share.

“We tried to sell the business but got no replies, so we thought ‘where do we go from here?’ We didn’t want to keep borrowing.

“We put our hearts and minds into the care home, and now we want to do something different.”

He said he did not agree with all the CQC report findings, and had listed the property for sale as a residential dwelling.

To read the inspection report visit www.cqc.org.uk