A home for the elderly in Aberdeen has been told to make urgent improvements in the care experienced by residents.

The Care Inspectorate has served a formal improvement notice on Banks O’Dee care home after an inspection raised “serious concerns”.

The notice has outlined four areas where changes must be made, with a deadline of March 11 set by inspectors.

The care home has been ordered to ensure residents’ health, welfare and safety needs are met “appropriately and consistently”, including making sure there are sufficient numbers of competent and qualified staff present at all times.

Management must also make sure staff work together well, and that residents’ support needs, wishes and choices are respected.

The provider has also been told to ensure residents are able to maintain and develop interests and activities and exercise lifestyle choices.

The improvement notice adds that care must be planned in a way which sets out how residents’ health, welfare and safety needs will be met and reflects their wishes and choices.

A spokesman for the Care Inspectorate said: “The improvement notice we have issued clearly lays out the improvements we must see so that the care experienced by residents improves quickly.

“We will visit this care home again soon to check on progress and if we are not satisfied that the matters raised are being addressed urgently, we will not hesitate to take further action.”

A spokesman for Four Seasons Health Care said: “We are sorry that Banks O’Dee is not meeting the standards we expect our homes to provide. We have brought in a specialist care improvement team who will be working closely with staff in the home, the Care Inspectorate and Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership.

“The care improvement team will advise and support on all aspects of care provision and improving the resident experience. We will arrange further training as necessary. The team are reviewing care plans and records to ensure they are up to date and reflect the individual needs and wishes of each resident.

“As an organisation we have robust systems, procedures and documentation to support a high standard of care and the improvement team will have oversight to ensure they are being properly followed in the home.

“The home’s operational challenges have been exacerbated by local difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff with the right skills in the strong local jobs market. This has necessitated high use of temporary agency staff who, although they are appropriately qualified, are not familiar with our policies and procedures and do not know the residents so well as our permanent staff.”