St Andrews Lodge, Colchester, rated inadequate by the CQC

The inspector found a bedroom fire door had been kept open by a fridge, so it could not shut automatically if there was a fire alarm

A care home has been put into special measures after an inspector found its medicines were not stored safely.

St Andrews Lodge in Colchester, Essex, also had "poor" fire safety and a water temperature that could cause burns.

It has been downgraded by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from requires improvement to inadequate, the watchdog announced on Wednesday.

The care home's director Sarah Reed said the issues raised in the report have been "highlighted and dealt with".

The facility, on St Andrew's Avenue, cared for eight people with a mental health condition or learning disability when it was inspected in November 2023.

Following the inspection the CQC rated the care home as inadequate in regards to its safety and governance.

The watchdog said that the most recent inspection did not look at how effective, caring and responsive the care home's services were, so those areas remain rated as good from a previous inspection in March 2019.

The watchdog found medicine was stored "unsafely" in a room without a consistent airflow

The CQC found medicines stored "unsafely" in a room that did not have a consistent airflow, which could have subsequently impacted the effectiveness of the medicines.

The inspector found a bedroom fire door had been kept open by a fridge, so it would not have shut automatically if there was a fire alarm. They also noted the office was "chaotic".

'We will be working hard'

Ms Reed, the director of Reed Care Homes Ltd which runs the lodge, said the latest CQC report had "upset us greatly".

"We have been under pressure financially as an organisation and this has unfortunately reflected in the quality of the service we deliver in terms of our governance," she told the BBC.

"We have already started implementing major changes within our organisation to ensure that the people we support still have outstanding care provided, and we will be working hard over the upcoming months to get the rating back to where we used to be.

"The individuals we care for remain happy, and I want to assure people the care received within the service has never been questioned."

Ms Reed said the issues raised by the watchdog had been dealt with.