A CARE home where staff seemed to be “overworked” has been told to improve by health watchdogs.

Ridgewell House, in Dulwich Road, Holland-on-Sea, has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

The service, which provides support for to up to 16 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia, had previously been rated as ‘good’.

A report published last month found the service did not have enough permanent staff and relied on agency workers.

It said: “Relatives' comments relating to staffing levels at the service were variable.

“Where these were positive, comments included ‘have never found that a member of staff was not around if I needed one’ whereas less positive comments included ‘staff don't stop, they seem overworked, are running around, that must impact on the residents’.

“The manager told us they continued to recruit to increase staff capacity to ensure they can continue to meet peoples care needs.”

The report said care plans did not always give staff the information they needed to provide safe care, but there was no impact for people using the service because staff knew people well.

The report added: “People were not always protected from the risk of harm. The service was not always well-led.

“The quality assurance processes were not robust, and the provider did not always have complete oversight of the service.

“The provider had not always ensured the documentation in people's medicines folders was up to date and reflected their current support needs.”

It added that the manager was aware of the concerns and actions were being taken to rectify medicine management systems.

The inspection found the manager was new and is “committed to driving improvement”.

“Following the inspection, the manager responded promptly to the concerns raised, confirming what actions they planned to take and providing an updated development and improvement plan,” it added.

The CQC said it will continue to monitor information about the service, which will help to inform when it will next make an inspection.

Prestige International EC Ltd, which runs the service, had not responded at the time of going to press.