A CARE home built at a cost of £8 million last year and hailed as being ‘fantastic’ for Bradford has been ranked inadequate and put in special measures by the Care Quality Commission.

CQC inspectors, who paid unannounced visits to The Gateway Care Home in Sticker Lane in February and March six months after it opened, discovered a catalogue of failings which included 12 breaches of health and social care regulations.

The care home, which opened last October, will now stay under constant review for at least the next 12 months to see if improvements are being made, said a CQC spokesman.

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Inspectors found residents were not getting enough to eat and drink to keep them healthy, they were losing weight, not getting their medicines as prescribed and staff were not answering call bells.

Care records were insufficient and incidents were not referred to the council’s safeguarding team.  The home was short of staff with a high-turnover, there was not a registered manager, there was a lack of infection control gloves and aprons, and toys meant for very young children were being used for activities which could be demeaning to residents, the CQC report also said.

CQC inspectors also found since October 2015, 40 of the 43 members of staff who had left the home had been dismissed, one resident had a discrepancy of between 27 and 54 tablets being given to them and an well-intentioned but untrained puppy at the home was being a hazard as one person had fallen over it and another suffered a cut while petting it.

The home, part of a long-term scheme to create a pioneering care village on the Dudley Hill site, aimed to be a centre of excellence for dementia and residential care when it opened after five years of planning and consulting with dementia experts at Bradford and Stirling universities, the Contented Dementia Trust and the Bradford council’s adult services team.

Gateway’s residential manager Chris White said a new management team had now been brought in and the home was fully staffed, adding: “We acknowledge the content of the latest CQC report and we are working closely with them and the local authority to address the areas for improvement.

“Our aim at The Gateway is to deliver excellent provision to our residents and be a beacon for quality residential care in Bradford.”

Bradford Council had worked closely with the Gateway Care Village to support its successful funding bid to Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Business Growth Programme and financial aid also came from the Yorkshire Bank.

Bradford Council leader David Green, who told the Telegraph & Argus the home was “fantastic news” for the city when it was being built, said: “The council is working very closely with the home to help it solve issues.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, portfolio holder for health and social care said: “It’s worrying. A lot of money was spent and we need good quality, modern purpose built homes for dementia care as demand grows.

“We will work with them to get it right, they have to get it right.”

A spokesman for the council’s adult and community services, said: “We are supporting the Gateway in following up the points raised by the CQC.

“They are already taking steps to address the issues raised, including appointing a new management team. We all have a common goal of ensuring residents have the best possible quality of care.”