AN ABINGDON care home still needs to improve its care for dementia patients after the sixth visit from health watchdog inspectors in 18 months.

Bridge House Care Homes in Thames View has been told that the services provided “are not always caring”, “not always responsive” and “not always safe” for the 65 patients in the 71-bed home.

The care home has been told it “requires improvement” by care chiefs.

Out of the 110 Oxfordshire care homes inspected in the past 12 months, this is the 29th that has not met Care Quality Commission standards.

The CQC performed a surprise inspection into the dementia specialist care home in January, and published its findings at the end of March.

Inspectors were told by one person that staff were not always respectful to them when providing care.

The CQC officials also found that “people were not always protected from the risk of cross infection” because soiled or dirty items were kept on cleaning trolleys, which circulated around the care home.

Patients were also at risk of being given the wrong levels of medication as the dispensing of drugs wasn’t always recorded by staff.

Commenting on the CQC report, chairwoman of consumer group Healthwatch Oxfordshire, Rachel Coney, said: “Healthwatch Oxfordshire is always concerned when local care provision does not meet the standards expected.”

Three patients at the care home are directly funded by Oxfordshire County Council, whose spokesman Marcus Mabberley said: “The county council has been working closely with the management of the privately-operated Bridge House Care Home regarding a number of issues that have been identified recently by the CQC.”

“This work will continue following the matters raised in the home’s latest CQC inspection report.

“Oxfordshire County Council takes CQC reports extremely seriously and works with providers to ensure they address areas of concern.”

The care home has been inspected by the CQC six times since July 2013.

After the July 2013 visit, inspectors noted that “people were not protected from the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment” due to poor record keeping.

A spokeswoman from Carebase, which operates the care home, said: “Nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of those we support.

“The CQC has highlighted the improvements already made, including enhanced staffing levels. We have also put in place a comprehensive action plan for managing medication and ensuring we have the best possible care plans. We are continuing to work hard to provide a high level of care and will always put our residents’ needs at the heart of everything we do.”

But Carebase also stated there was “positive feedback” to be taken from the report.

Before January, the home had last been inspected in September 2014, after concerns were raised by the family members of a resident.

During that inspection CQC staff found that many residents and their families were agitated by the swift turnover of staff and an over dependence on agency workers.

A relative of a residents said there had been “a rapid improvement” in the service provided since the September inspection.

Additional members of staff had also been made available at night after concerns were raised by relatives.

Inspectors concluded: “Staff were caring towards people using the service.”