A RESIDENTIAL home has been told it must improve by the independent health and social care regulator, CQC.

Boars Tye Residential Home, in Silver End, was branded as requires improvement, which is just one step above inadequate, after it broke three regulations put in place to protect vulnerable people.

There were no systems in place to ensure people had medications safely and on two occasions residents were given medications at the wrong time.

In a report published on April 21, inspectors said: "There were not effective procedures in place to monitor the safety of the environment and to ensure that people had their medicines safely. This meant that people were not kept safe from potential harm.

"This service was not always safe. "For example we observed a member of staff give a person a tablet to take with their lunch.

"This was left in a pot for them to take later after they had finished eating. Another person was sharing their table.

"Medication error reports showed that two errors took place in June 2015. A person was given their Zopiclone in the morning rather than at night.

"This drug aids sleep and would have made the person drowsy which presented a significant risk."

This also happened on a second occasion to another patient.

The service at the residential home was not always effective. Inspectors said on some occasions decisions had been made for people without the completion of a formal mental capacity assessment.

The report also said: "A new resident had been assessed to see if the service could meet their needs. The person was going to be admitted into one of the services shared rooms.

"We heard staff say, "Did you tell them it was a shared room" and the response was given, "Yes I did tell them".

"Whether the person had been able to give informed consent that they were happy to share a room was not discussed.

"One person was described as having a grade three pressure sore, this requires the provider to notify the CQC. We had no record of a notification being sent to the CQC prior to the inspection."

Director of residential care, Clive Weir, who is also the mental capacity act trainer, said he was not prepared to comment until he had a chance to write a formal report in over two weeks.