A CARE home for elderly people in North Yorkshire is not safe and urgently needs to improve, inspectors have said.

Lake and Orchard Care Centre in Kelfield near York has been told by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) it must make improvements or face enforcement action.

During an unannounced inspection in July and September 2014, inspectors found that the home was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led, while they found the care home "odorous and had some areas that were dirty" while there was a risk of infection.

There were often not enough staff to provide safe and effective care to people living there, they said.

The care centre - which is home to up to 100 people - is not well led and there has been a lack of stability in management and no evidence improvements have been made.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall Lake and Orchard Care Centre has been rated as Inadequate.

Debbie Westhead, deputy chief inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said: “We found that the care provided at Lake and Orchard Care Centre fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide. We have told them they must take action to resolve the issues we identified.

“The provider is failing to meet the basic needs and individual choices of the people living at Lake and Orchard Carer Centre. Many people living at the home do not have the ability to consent and the home has not ensured they were lawfully protected.

“We have made it clear that we will return to the home to check that the necessary improvements have been made. If not, we will take further action to make sure that people living there receive care which is safe, effective, caring and responsive to their needs.”

Inspectors found people living at the home did not always receive their medicines at the times they needed them or in a safe way. In addition some medicines were not being stored at the correct temperature.

The CQC has issued the care home provider with warning notices, setting deadlines for improvements in relation to care and welfare, assessing and monitoring of service quality, cleanliness and infection control, medicines management and staffing.

There have been long-running problems at the nursing home. In 2013 The Press reported how the CQC had raised a series of similar concerns.

A spokesperson for the home said: “We take feedback from the CQC very seriously and following the inspections in July and September a new management team and the dedicated staff have worked hard to address the areas raised in the report.

“The home has made significant progress against the areas identified.

“The health and wellbeing of residents is our absolute priority and we will continue to work closely with the CQC to implement all of the required improvements.”