A celebration has been held at a care home after it was praised by inspectors for making a series of improvements.

Ritson Lodge at Hopton, in between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, has been rated as good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced inspection in August.

The last time the care home on Lowestoft Road was inspected, in November 2021, it had been rated as requiring improvement.

While the latest report rated the care home as good in four areas and good overall, the CQC said improvements could be made around the handling of medicines, which it rated as requiring improvement under the safe category.

The CQC report said: "A new management team had been in place since early 2022.

"The management team had put an improvement and development plan in place, and we found significant improvements had already been made.

"This included acting upon areas for improvement identified at previous inspections.

"However, further improvement was still needed with regards to the management and administration of medicines.

"Medicines were stored safely within the home however there were five occasions where one person received an out of date medicine.

"Some of the equipment to administer medicines was not suitable.

"Medicines were administered in a timely manner and in a way that respected people's preferences.

"One person's care plan for end of life care was not up to date and did not guide staff on choosing the appropriate dose of analgesic, should it be required.

"We have made recommendations about how the service can make improvements in these areas."

Praising the new management, the report said: "The new management team had acted upon areas for improvement identified at previous inspections, as well as areas for improvement identified through the provider's own quality assurance system.

"The new management team had robust systems to manage and monitor the quality of the service and took action where required to ensure people received a consistently good service." 

To mark the good rating the care home, which is run by Barchester Healthcare and had 34 residents at the time of the inspection, held a celebratory party.

Siobhan Fennell, general manager at Ritson Lodge, said: “We are absolutely thrilled that our home has achieved a good rating following the CQC’s most recent inspection.

"It is fantastic to have the hard work and dedication of everyone here recognised."