A care home could face urgent enforcement action after being put in special measures and again being rated 'inadequate'.

Ashbury Court care home of Sea Road, Westgate, was given the worst possible rating on two out of five categories - safety and how well-led the home was - by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The remaining three categories - care, effectiveness and responsiveness - were handed the second-worst rating.

The home was put into special measures following an inspection between Wednesday, November 30 and Thursday, December 1 last year, which found the site to be inadequate.

The latest unannounced inspection, carried out on Tuesday, July 4 and Thursday, July 6, found that the service "continued to be unsafe" and that "people were at risk of harm and abuse".

In some cases, people were not given the medicine they needed and staff did not always treat them with care and respect.

At any one time, the care home can accommodate 37 older people, with 22 living at the home at the time of inspection in July.

The service will now be kept under review and "could be escalated to urgent enforcement action".

The report states: "Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement so there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action to prevent the provider from operating this service.

"This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration."

The inspection also found that although staff knew the signs of possible abuse and were confident to raise concerns, the registered manager had not always taken action to keep people safe.

In some cases, important information had been removed from their records and had failed to be used when planning their care, while some records were inaccurate.

On one occasion, there had been a delay in helping one person have an injury checked at a hospital.

Staff had also failed to take action when a resident had an unexplained bruise.

A spokesman for the home said: “We are disappointed by the outcome of the report, which does not reflect the high standards we aim for.

"The report highlights positive progress at the home, in relation to staff training and care, but we acknowledge that there are still improvements to be made.

"We are disappointed by the outcome of the report, which does not reflect the high standards we aim for" - Care home spokesman

"Immediate and robust action has already been taken, with new management team members in place, in addition to the home receiving support from senior management and working closely with the CCG, Local Authority and external partners.”

The Westgate care home is one of eight services found to be inadequate by CQC in London and the South.

Deborah Ivanova, deputy chief inspector of Adult Social Care in CQC’s south region said: “It is important that the people who live in these services can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to.

“Inspectors found these services were failing to provide the level of care people should be able to expect.

“We found a number of concerns at these services and as a result of our findings all services have been rated Inadequate and placed into special measures.

“We will continue to monitor these practices and we will inspect again in six months to check whether improvements have been made.

"I am hopeful that the homes will do what is required for the sake of the people living there but if we find that any of these services remain Inadequate, we will not hesitate to take further appropriate action.”