Some people try to convince me that cases of neglect and abuse of vulnerable people in care in the UK are extremely rare. Some people also try to convince me that those who talk of such cases are scaremongering.
Below is just a selection of cases of neglect and abuse of vulnerable people in care in the UK over the month of November 2012. It is a selection and by no means all of the cases I came across. The dates are the publication dates.
5 November 2012: Britain’s biggest care home owners ‘have £5 billion debts’. Read more here.
5 November 2012: Nottingham – Police are investigating an elderly care home in Nottingham which closed after having its council contract suspended. Read more here.
6 November 2012: Suffolk – The great care home giveaway: Tory council calls in the private sector. Suffolk County Council has agreed a multimillion pound deal with the private sector to take over its care homes amid fresh calls for financial regulation to protect elderly residents and the taxpayer.
The council’s 16 aging homes will be closed by 2015 and 10 new homes (and wellbeing centres) built – giving the county 104 extra beds to help meet growing demand.
The first five will be built and owned by Schroders UK Property Fund – who will lease the homes back to Care UK. The land is being given to Schroders for free by the council with unrestricted freeholds. Read more here.
9 November 2012: Dementia patient found wandering in the freezing night ten miles from home after carer ‘forgot’ about him – Read more here.
9 November 2012: – Devon -Council breached equality duty in setting care home fees. Authority to review care home fees after High Court found it failed to consider impact of possible home closures on vulnerable residents. Read more here.
19 November 2012: Hayling Island – three women arrested as police investigate claims of neglect at a care home – Read more here.
19 November 2012: Olney, Northamptonshire – two women charged in connection with neglect at a residential home – Read more here.
19 November 2012: Luton – woman denies neglect after an elderly woman with dementia was left on a bus in Luton overnight – Read more here.
19 November 2012: St Saviour, Jersey – A care home nurse threatened to teach a colleague a lesson by beating her up ‘in the African way’ during an aggressive outburst, a tribunal heard. Read more here.
20 November 2012: Buckinghamshire – two care home workers charged with neglecting patients at care home for dementia sufferers – each charged with 19 counts of wilfully neglecting a person without capacity between August 18 and 19, 2011 – Read more here.
23 November 2012: Archway, London – Whittington Hospital – two senior nurses ignored plight of epileptic 17 year old who suffered 5 epileptic fits in the space of 24 hours and died four days later – Read more here.
26 November 2012: Swindon, Wiltshire – Selena House Care Home, Stratton St Margaret to close in December “over safety fears” – The CQC report said the home had failed to meet 11 government standards, including care and welfare, dignity, cleanliness and infection control. Read more here.
27 November 2012: Goole, Yorkshire – Three Women Arrested after elderly woman is injured ‘while unattended’, allegedly, in care home . Read more here.
27 November 2012: Chingford, Essex – Chingford rehab unit so understaffed patients were left to wet the bed, watchdog finds. Vulnerable patients’ dignity was compromised by poorly trained staff at a rehab unit where dementia was mistaken for a learning difficulty, according to a damning watchdog report. Read more here.
27 November 2012: Cambridgeshire – Abacus Care Cambridgeshire has been issued with a formal warning by a health watchdog after failing to meet standards for a second time. Read more here.
27 November 2012: Great Wyrley, Staffs – care home worker stole cash and personal belongings from residents and staff to help fund her drug habit. Read more here.
28 November 2012: What can be done to ensure care home residents get quality healthcare? Reports suggest the availability of doctors in care homes has fallen short of what residents are entitled to. So what can be done to ensure these patients get the care they deserve? Read more here.
30 November 2012: Maltby, Sth Yorks – Melton Court care home residents face pre-Christmas move after it emerged the home’s owner is in prison serving a sentence for causing grievous bodily harm. Read more here.
And finally, as December 2012 arrives we find:
1 December 2012: Care home regulation not fit for purpose, says care minister Norman Lamb. Read more here.
Better late than never, I guess, but what took you so long to work that one out?
Care in the UK 