A Muswell Hill care home has been rapped by regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for a series of record-keeping, medicine and management failures.

Alexandra Park Home, in Methuen Road, received a damning report from the CQC which rated it "requires improvement" in terms of safety, effectiveness, how caring it is and how it responds to residents' needs. It received an 'inadequate' rating for how "well led" it is.

The report pinpoints the failings including a lack of "open and transparent culture when things went wrong" and ineffective "systems for monitoring the safety and quality of the service".

The inspectors continued: "People's medicines were not always being managed safely. The systems in place to assess the risks to people's safety were inconsistent, not always effective and ways to mitigate risks were not always clear."

Although the report found staff were well-liked at the home and its decoration had been improved, the CQC found the home breached two aspects of the Health and Social Care Act - relating to the checks in place during recruitment and its involvement of residents in their own care.

Operated by Earlybird Care Limited, the residential nursing home caters for 13 elderly people who have a range of health needs.

The CQC criticised the home because recent internal reports had "made no reference" to concerns raised by Haringey Council or in a previous CQC report - also scoring "requires improvement" from July 2019.

The regulator said it would be meeting with the management in order "to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good".

Haringey Council's health chief, Cllr Sarah James (Lab, Harringay), said: "The wellbeing of residents is paramount. The council is aware of the situation and both NHS Haringey CCG and the council's Quality Assurance service are offering dedicated support to assist the provider to improve its service."

This newspaper has not yet had a response to our request for comment from either the home or Earlybird Care.