A ‘disgraceful’ care company that left elderly patients waiting for hours and referred to a patient as both a man and a woman has shut down.

Details of neglect and incompetence were a constant feature of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report, which gave A Star Complex Care, formerly based in Eastham, Wirral, the lowest possible rating of ‘inadequate’.

The biggest problem uncovered in the report was the lateness of visits.

One service user, said: “They are often late, the eight o’clock call is often eleven o’clock, which is too late.

“It has been impacting on [us] the whole day, it’s very, very erratic. I reckon 75% of the time they are late.”

Another service user, said: “They never tell me they are running late… waiting for over an hour and a half, it gets a bit much.

“There is only one number to call and no one answers. They always say we are on the way… you just sit here and wait.”

The consequences of this neglect were troubling, it affected people’s ability to take their medication on time and eat regular meals.

One person said: “There are tablets I have to take and when they [care staff] are late I get worried.

“I take meds every time they come and [I] should take [them] on time and they are never on time.”

When patients were visited, they often had a poor experience.

One disgruntled service user said: “They just come in and then [they are] gone, they only spend 15 minutes. That’s not good enough.”

Notably, one person was referred to as both male and female and by two different names in their care plan.

Unsurprisingly, this made inspectors question if the care plan was relevant to the patient.

One reason for the many issues experienced by patients, is the fact that the service was short staffed.

The CQC report reveals that management regularly had to step in to complete care calls, doing this for between 70 and 90 hours a week.

People also told inspectors that complaints were not listened to.

Discussing their experience of the company, one person said: “[I] wasn’t satisfied and I have been let down quite a few times, some days no one turned up which is disgraceful.”

Another person said: “I tell them all and they just say [the] same things, excuses all the time. I tell the managers that they are late and [there are] always excuses.”

One service user said they called the company over 80 times to find out why care staff had not visited them.

The reports also states that management gave the CQC “misleading information” when they were carrying out their inspection of the company.

Following the damning report, the company has now been closed and the CQC is monitoring them to make sure that they are not providing any regulated care services.