A CREWE nursing home has hit back over criticism of the way that it is run after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission(CQC).

The report found that the Audlem Country Nursing Home, The Old Grammar School, which houses dementia patients, 'requires improvement' in key areas including safety, effectiveness, caring and responsive and was judged 'inadequate' in leadership.

As part of it criticism of the home, inspectors had said they observed bedridden patients being left without drinks for more than 15 hours.

Now the home's manager Carlie Jordan has hit back at the criticism questioning the validity of the CQC inspection.

She said: "We were very distressed with the inspection report, we have challenged CQC regarding the factual accuracy of the report and we do not feel that it is an accurate reflection of the care that we provide.

"Of the 41 residents within the home at the time of the inspection only one resident did not have a care plan in place and this resident was admitted to the home just two days prior to the inspection. This resident did have thorough risk assessments in place and a detailed pre admission assessment which contained information about the needs of the resident.

"With regard to staff training, we provide all staff with training in 13 core essential areas to promote safety and standards of care, in addition staff also complete qualifications with an outside provider. Training compliance within the home is maintained above 85 per cent and regular one to one meetings are held with staff to identify any shortfalls.

"The home manager had taken steps to source training that had been identified as a requirement and as a company we are more than happy to provide any training that is needed to ensure our residents have the very best care.

"We strongly object to the suggestion that residents are not given sufficient fluids, we have challenged this with CQC as in one case in particular it was documented in the residents care notes that the nurse on duty had offered the resident drinks during the night,

"We can also confirm that there are no concerns regarding pressure sores, skin damage or weight loss within the home and if people were not receiving adequate fluids or nutrition this would be likely.

"We acknowledge that improvements are required with regard to staff documentation as we feel that there were omissions which may have given the impression that fluids had not been offered to residents, when in fact this certainly was not the case.

"Within the home we look after very complex individuals who have dementia, challenging behaviour and enduring mental health difficulties, unfortunately, despite pro-active management their behaviour and difficulties can lead to incidents, however as a company we believe it is essential to be transparent, open and honest and all incidents are always reported and acted upon appropriately.

"Staff do receive online training in the management of challenging behaviour and as mentioned previously the home manager had taken steps to source face to face more in depth sessions."

Ms Jordan added: "We totally disagree with the suggestion that resident personal care is poor, our residents require a very skilled approach but staff work extremely hard to ensure that their needs are met and that they receive high standards of care. We also challenged CQC about this as we feel it is inaccurate.

"It important to note that one week prior to the CQC inspection, we were visited by Cheshire East local authority for quality monitoring purposes and we received very positive feedback from them, none of the concerns raised by CQC were identified by them and in light of this and the above mentioned we shall be contesting the report and challenging CQC further."