A CARE home where three residents died and seven had to be hospitalised has not been fully inspected for five years, reports show.

Gainsborough Care Home, in Ulwell Road, Swanage, remains the centre of a police investigation after residents were found dead on October 23.

The deaths of an 86-year-old woman and two men, aged 74 and 91, are being treated as unexplained although police are investigating carbon monoxide poisoning as its primary line of enquiry.

A 60-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter but has since been released under investigation.

The care home, run by Agincare, can support up to 48 people aged 65 and over and is adapted for those with dementia, mental health conditions and physical disabilities.

Gainsborough Care Home was last inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in all five key areas: safety, effectiveness, caring, responsive and well-led, in April 2019.

This followed an inspection in October 2018 which found the home to require improvement in all areas.

The CQC report said not all staff were “skilled and competent to care for people safely” and observed a new member assisting a person to eat in an “unsafe and undignified” way which put them at risk of choking.

Inspectors returned in 2019 where the care home was found to have improved to ‘good’ in the areas of effective, caring and responsive but still required improvement in safe and well-led.

The report said at the time there were enough trained staff to provide for residents’ essential needs but that laundry and washing duties meant they could not spend time as much time with people.

It also found four nights a week there were no staff on duty who were trained to administer medicines.

Inspectors raised concerns of cleanliness, with one person’s bed being found made but with faeces still on the bed rail.

CQC staff returned in September 2020 where the home still required improvement for safety and well-led, with inspectors finding 31 out of 35 rooms containing unsecured wardrobes.

In its latest inspection in October 2021, Gainsborough Care Home was found to be ‘good’ in the previous weak areas.

The report said the registered manager had brought ‘stability and greater managerial oversight’ to the home.

It added each resident had personalised evacuation plans.

It was previously reported that on the day of the incident on October 23, all residents were evacuated to a nearby church.