Somerset care home closes nursing services after regulator rating of 'Inadequate'.

A care home has closed its nursing services after an inspection by health and care regulators rated it ‘Inadequate.’

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said Priory Court Nursing Home, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, had not been able to recruit enough staff to keep people safe.

The home’s manager, Vicki Clist said: "We are confident that the urgent and necessary improvements required are already under way.

“The care industry has had a challenging time during the last year or so and, in recent months, particularly with recruitment.

"When CQC came to Priory Court we were struggling with staffing, which has had a knock-on effect to other parts of running the home."

Country Court, operator of Priory Court, said it had taken the "difficult decision" to close its nursing beds after the CQC inspection in July 2021 found safety, care and leadership were inadequate.

Operations director, Helen Richmond said: "We took immediate action on the concerns raised and feel it is necessary to make some big changes to ensure we can offer the right care for our residents."

The home has 32 residents, which are a mixture of privately funded and local authority placements.

Somerset County Council said it would try to find alternative care placements within the area for the residents it funds.

A council spokesman said: "We will work with the CQC and Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to support our Somerset local authority-funded residents and their families to find alternative nursing placements as quickly as possible."

CQC head of inspection for adult social care, Amanda Stride, said the home had been rated inadequate overall and that it was working with the council and CCG to help residents find new services.