Care homes should be barred from hiding drugs in the food and drink of elderly residents, campaigners said yesterday.

{mosimage}The call follows concern that nursing staff are dishing out sedatives to the frail and elderly without their knowledge or consent. The new campaign follows official acknowledgement that drugs are often badly handled in care homes.

Last year the Government’s inspection body, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, reported that nearly half of all care home residents do not get the correct drugs and warned of risks of ‘wilful maladministration of medicine’.

The ‘chemical cosh’ for confused and vulnerable people can make life easy for those who are looking after them.

But it can also lead to a rapid decline in health and risk of death for the residents who are sedated.

Complaints over covert medication were raised with the Scottish Parliament by Hunter Watson, who discovered that care home staff were giving medication to his mother disguised in her meals.

He told the BBC: “It shouldn’t happen. It is very very convenient for staff at care homes to conceal drugs in the food and drink of residents, not for therapeutic problems but to make the residents easier to manage.

The owner of two Devon care homes has called in administrators following trading difficulties. Starlight Care Ltd, which owns the Swallowcliffe home in Seaton and the Koppers home in Kilmington, has called in Exeter corporate recovery firm Begbies Traynor.

Plans have been unveiled to build six state-of-the-art residential homes. The proposals are part of a 10-year plan by the county council and primary care trust to modernise care for the elderly in north and west Cumbria.