THE owner of a Lyme Regis care home said she was ‘forced’ to close due to a council inspection system which valued ‘paperwork first and care later’.

Alison Curtis, 69, has run Clarondene home for more than nine years but closed it earlier this month after a council ban on placing residents there left the home in the red.

“We have suffered as a result of Dorset County Council’s contract compliance inspections for years,” Ms Curtis said.

She said the set-up and atmosphere of the home did not fit with the rigid system imposed by the council, who wanted to see ‘paperwork first and care later’.

As reported in the Bridport News, the home came under fire in 2013 when a CQC inspection found risk assessments were not regularly reviewed, people were not protected from risks such as malnutrition or pressure sores, medicines were not always stored securely and administration records and controlled drugs registers were not always accurate.

Ms Curtis said: “Human beings will always make errors, but there were no allowances with the council system and they put a block on us.

"It got to the point where DCC’s block became permanent so no more residents could be placed here by them, and we were relying on a good CQC inspection to encourage DCC to lift it.

"I got a temporary manager in and installed a new system to look at things from the top down and we passed four of five CQC standards.”

Despite this, she said, a delay in publishing the CQC’s report meant the home encountered financial difficulties and had to close before the council could see the report.

Ms Curtis said: “A small home has very tiny margins and I have never claimed a salary since I owned it.

“I had to take the difficult decision to close the home, but how do you close it when you love the residents that you have got?”

Ms Curtis said she is so passionate about the people she cares for she works ‘seven days a week’ and took just one week’s leave after her third cancer operation to remove a bowel tumour.

“It’s completely traumatic; I’m very close to all the residents and lived with them - it’s like losing all your family in one go.

“Social services did their best, but I hope those at the council who wouldn’t lift the block can sleep at night,” Ms Curtis said.

A county council spokesman said: “The council is committed to safeguarding all vulnerable adults in the county.

"We monitor all care homes where we place older people, and continue to measure their performance against a set of agreed standards.

"In some cases, including Clarondene, the council will not fund any new residents until the standard of care have improved to the level expected.

"We have been working closely with the management at Clarondene over a long period of time, but despite some improvements being made we have been unable to recommend the home to new residents at this stage."

“We are now working with the people living at the home and their families to ensure they are provided with the necessary support to find suitable alternative care and accommodation.”