A care home has been put into special measures after inspectors found staff could not keep residents safe.

Ashbury Court, Sea Road, Westgate, was given the worst possible rating on four out of five categories including safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and how well-led the home was during an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The care was rated as requires improvement, the second-worst rating available.

The unannounced inspection on Wednesday, November 30 and Thursday, December 1 was called after the body received information from people’s relatives and whistleblowers.

The same management team look after the Norfolk House Care Home, which is next door to Ashbury Court.

Ashbury Court can cater for up to 37 people and when representatives from the CQC arrived, 34 people were living there.

Inspectors found evidence that staff did not have the skills they needed to keep people safe in an emergency.

Changes in people’s health had not always been recognised and acted on, resulting in one resident’s pleas for an a doctor to be called being ignored.

That resident was later admitted to hospital.

The inspection also revealed people’s medicines were not always stored securely, putting people at risk of being given the wrong medicine.

People had to wait for the support they needed, which included being walked to the toilet.

But inspectors were told that residents had enough to do during the day, engaging in a wide range of activities, such as making Christmas decorations.

Inspectors were told that staff at the home, which mostly caters for people who are over 65, were kind but they found people were not always treated with due respect.

The inspection resulted in the home being put in special measures meaning that if managers do not take action to improve the service by the time it is inspected again in six months, the CQC will take further steps.

A spokesman for the care home, who declined to be named, said: “We take the feedback from the Care Quality Commission seriously and have instigated robust action plans to address the matters raised.”