VULNERABLE residents were trapped in lifts, stuck in their beds and left for hours without food, a shocking new report into a closed care home has revealed.

After numerous warnings from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over slipping standards of care, all 30 residents of the Treetops Care Home in Epping were moved to alternative accommodation and the home shut in October last year.

A newly published report by the care inspectorate has detailed the squalid conditions inside the Station Road home for the first time.

Cracks in the operation began to emerge when controlling company Epping Care Home Limited fell into debt, causing staff to quit and the workload for remaining carers to build up.

With seven agencies owed money, shifts went unfilled and residents uncared for as temporary staff refused to work for the company.

One resident, who was physically infirm but mentally capable, was stuck in bed because a care assessment was lost and rails not removed as a result.

They said: "I need two carers to help me with a hoist – that's why I don't get up I can't get out of bed because of the sides. I can't get out."

With only one member of staff left to patrol each floor at certain points, one person was left with an overflowing catheter bag for several hours and another, diabetic resident shut in their room without food for three hours after requesting breakfast.

By the summer of 2017 more than 80 per cent of staff were temporary, which caused care plans to fall apart and mistakes to creep in.

Water jugs and Zimmer frames were left out of resident’s reach, time sensitive medication was given too late to be effective and at least one resident went without lunch, because their meal was placed to the side of them rather than in front.

At odds with protocol, residents were taken to the toilet in a bathroom that faced out into the communal living room.

Also confined to their room, another resident said: "I like gardening, I used to grow marrows. I used to make bird boxes – that's what I would like to do. I do not leave my room; I do not go into the garden."

When the home’s main lift broke in September 2017, management made residents use the secondary platform lift rather than forking out £2,500 for repairs.

In the months following engineers were called out 20 times to fix the overheated contraption, on seven occasions because residents were trapped.

The home had been looking after private patients only since March 2015, when Essex County Council removed its 21 residents from the home and cancelled its contract with Epping Care Home Limited.

The CQC’s report concludes: “As a result of these concerns the Commission took urgent action to restrict admissions to the service and impose conditions with a view to having proper oversight to ensure people are cared for safely.

“Essex County Council have since supported all those living at Treetops to move to alternative accommodation. The home has been empty since 13 October 2017.”

A spokesperson for Essex County Council said: “We are in regular contact with the CQC and providers across Essex, and have robust mechanisms in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of residents in care homes and that good standards of care are maintained.

"We worked closely with the provider, the CQC, residents and their families to ensure a safe and suitable move to alternative accommodation of the residents choice. 

"These moves, for both ECC funded residents and private residents, were all completed by 13 October 2017.”