More than 50 frail residents of a £1,200-a-week nursing home are being moved out after a string of damning inspection reports.

West Sussex County Council said it is moving its 52 residents out of the BUPA home in Crawley following concerns about their safety.

About 60 private residents are still believed to be living at the home.

Standards of care at Oakhurst Grange Nursing Home, in Goffs Park Road, have been found to be inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A report published by the CQC found residents to be assaulting each other without staff noticing and some residents being left dehydrated in their rooms with white noise blaring from their televisions.

The home continually fell short in the areas of safeguarding from abuse and the general care and welfare of residents during five CQC inspections between July 2012 and February 2013.

Other shocking allegations included: l A bell taking up to an hour and a half to be answered, by which time the resident had wet their bed.

lAresident being ‘forgotten’ on the toilet and being found by family members 45 minutes later, having not been able to move from the bathroom.

l A resident who required puréed food, found eating broccoli with his hands.

Cate Blanchard, 49, a mental health nurse from Brighton, whose mother, Chris, died in May last year after being admitted to the home in September 2011, said: “They’ve had inspections there every month since my mother died.

“It’s just a shame nothing happened sooner.

“Mymother was an active, intelligent woman in the early stages of dementia and her deterioration over the following eight months was shocking.”

The retired geriatric nurse died aged 83 of kidney failure, months after moving to the home.

Ms Blanchard added: “I visited her weekly and she was often in soiled clothes, or clothes that didn’t belong to her,.

“A couple of times she had bruises on her face and when I asked why, sometimes they’d have a reason like a fall but a lot of the time it was unexplained.

“We were told at the beginning by our social worker that if she didn’t like the home we could change, but when it came to actually carrying that action out it became clear it wasn’t going to happen.

“My mother cared for people all her life. She deserved better – it’s just shocking, appalling really.”

The county council and its NHS partners had been working with BUPA to bring about improvements, but without success.

The council said there had been some improvements, but with complaints about the well-being of patients still pouring in, it decided to terminate the contract with the home.

Amanda Rogers, West Sussex County Council’s director of adult services, said: “This decision has been a difficult one for us to make as we are aware that moving frail and elderly residents to alternative accommodation causes them stress.

“We only do this when necessary, and in this case, it is necessary.”

Richard Jackson, operations director atBUPA, said: “We have been making progress at the home and this has been recognised by residents and their relatives.

“Residents’ welfare is always our number one priority and we will help those who wish to move, while doing everything possible to continue to care for those who prefer to stay.”

Worried families can call the County Council’s Contact Centre on 01243 642104.

l Housing all 52 residents would have cost the taxpayer £3.2million a year if the council was paying full rates for their stays.