Balhousie Care Group has said it is “desperately disappointed” by gradings issued by the Care Inspectorate for its Pitlochry care home.

The service was issued with an improvement notice and rated Weak in the areas of supporting wellbeing, leadership and workforce following an inspection in August.

In their key findings, inspectors found the environment, furnishings and environment were not clean and there was a “strong maladour” in areas of the home.

The regulator also found insufficient domestic staff to maintain cleanliness and while staff were “working hard” said there were not enough to support people’s needs.

Inspectors also found people’s continence and pain needs were not being managed effectively or with dignity and did not have the support they needed to maintain their nutrition and fluid intake.

The regulator added the service was not led and managed in a manner that resulted in people’s health, safety and wellbeing needs being met.

A spokesperson for Balhousie Care Group said: “We were desperately disappointed by the Care Inspectorate’s (CI) gradings for our Pitlochry care home in August, particularly after sustained and steadfast work to conclude improvements earlier this year. As stated in the report ‘The service had worked hard to improve the quality of care… previous inspection highlighted the significant progress made.’

“Our dedicated staff and management teams took immediate steps to investigate and address the issues raised through a robust action plan, developed in close collaboration with the Care Inspectorate and Health and Social Care Partnership, to ensure that Pitlochry provides the quality of care expected throughout Balhousie Care Group.

“This work has continued in the two months since the inspection. Revisits have seen the CI happy with progress, such that they have extended deadlines to allow completion of the good work underway.

“We were particularly pleased to see the report highlight the hard work and compassion of the Pitlochry staff, and appreciation from families: ‘You can’t fault them, the staff are just amazing.’

“Our Pitlochry team continues determinedly to conclude the necessary improvements with around-the-clock, hands-on support from our operations and quality teams. Balhousie Care, as always, are fully committed to working closely with the Care Inspectorate to the health and wellbeing of our residents.”