Minster Care Group has pledged to make improvements “as quickly as possible” after a care home was found to be unsafe.

Saffron House in Leicester was rated Inadequate for safety but its overall rating was upgraded to Requires Improvement following an inspection in November.

A spokesperson for Saffron House said: “We are disappointed that we have not yet achieved all of the improvements required by the CQC following its previous inspection. Significant progress has been made since then – which the CQC has acknowledged – but we have provided additional head office support for the team at the home and put in place an accelerated action plan to ensure all remaining quality improvements are implemented as quickly as possible.

“Ongoing staff training is being undertaken to ensure our processes and procedures are followed at all times and further refurbishment work on the building is underway. The home was previously rated ‘good’ in a number of areas and we look forward to CQC’s next visit when hopefully ratings are upgraded to reflect the improvements made.” 

The CQC witnessed a medicine trolley being unattended for nearly one minute.

Inspectors also found a significant number of unidentified tablets in sharps containers (designated containers for the safe disposal of sharps such as syringes).

While improvements had been made to medicine systems, the CQC said these were “were not fully embedded and staff did not consistently follow procedures for the safe management of medicines”.

One person was observed walking in and out of people’s rooms without any support or intervention.

Inspectors also observed a person at risk of choking when a staff member used their fingers to extract excess food from their mouth.