A care home had a lounge smelling of urine with one resident left with unchanged continence pads.

Another had not been to the toilet for four days.

Some living at Sonia Lodge in Walmer were left in dirty clothes and rows between residents were allowed to boil over.

There were too few staff and those remaining employed there were overworked.

These were the shocking findings from inspectors of the Care Quality Commission when they checked up on the Warwick Road home.

They have now officially classed the centre as inadequate and put it in special measures. It will be re-inspected within the next six months

Sonia Lodge had slid down from being categorised as requiring improvement after the previous inspection last September.

Hazel Roberts, CQC’s head of adult social care inspection, said: "Essentially, there weren’t enough staff to support people safely and provide reasonable standards of care.

"Staff told us they were rushed off their feet and didn’t have time to sit and talk to people. Because staff were so busy, they were focused on tasks and not interacting with people to ensure they were comfortable.

"Prior to the inspection, we were told that people who needed help with going to the toilet weren’t being supported.

"During our inspection we found one person’s continence pads hadn’t been changed, or even checked, for eight hours. Consequently, the lounge, and some other areas in the home, smelt of urine. One person told us they hadn’t been to the toilet for four days and they had pain in their stomach.

“We also found people weren’t being treated in a dignified way. Some people were wearing mis-matched clothing or dirty clothes. One person had no shoes on, and staff didn’t notice the person’s wheelchair had only one footrest and their feet were dragging on the floor.

“Some people living there didn’t get on well. Instead of intervening to calm people, the situation was left to escalate, and we saw people in the lounge shouting at each other and threatening to hit one another."

The inspectors formally listed faults such as:

• Staff were not always following people’s care plans and people were not being supported safely.
• People were not provided with mental and physical stimulation during the day.
• Medicines were not well managed and medicine records were not well kept.
• Although cleanliness of the service had improved since the last inspection, the service did not smell clean and needed further improvement.
• Although staff knew how to raise concerns about abuse, systems had not been effective in reducing the risk of abuse by neglect.
• Record keeping was poor and not always accurate.
• Safe recruitment processes weren’t being used to recruit staff, as the provider had not done background checks on people’s work history.

Last September the home's bosses were given a second notice by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman after it failed to act on complaints concerning a woman's care.

Sonia Lodge is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 28 older people, many of whom are living with dementia. At the time of this last CQC inspection, on March 2, there were 14 people living at the service.

Management at Sonia Lodge have been asked to comment on this new CQC inspection.