Advice please

[Cherylb]

The brief version; my mother was in a care home until she passed away in hospital in October of last year.
Several weeks before her admission to hospital I became concerned about the level of care she was receiving. Without going into any great detail I complained to the manager on several occasions about certain aspects. I also kept CQC up to date with my concerns, social care were also involved as the hospital submitted a safe guarding referral when my mother was admitted- I was advised that the result of this 'would probably be' no further action.
CQC inspected the home on dec 1st and 2nd of last year and the report has only been published on line today; the result is that the home received 'needs improvement' on all 5 areas of the inspection.
Whilst I am pleased that the home has been observed to need improvement I feel that the concerns I have raised have been ignored on a personal level.
My mother was severely de hydrated and had an infection when she was admitted to hospital and I firmly believe that the care that she needed at the care home was insufficient.
I have contacted social care today as I wanted to wait until I had seen the CQC report, and I have asked them what they have concluded from their own investigation regarding the safe guarding referral as I have not heard from them since last December. I await a response from them.
I am not able to get closure on this and I'm not sure if I'm honest what will give me closure. When I think about my 84 year old mother being potentially neglected I feel so upset and angry.
What would others do in this situation ?

[MissFM]

Re: Advice please

Cherylb, I am so terribly sorry for your loss and the heartrending circumstances you describe. I have enormous sympathy with you and wish I could help. You have done all the right things and I know from experience that challenging "the system" feels like pushing an elephant upstairs. An apology, an admission, a meaningful commitment to change would help to some extent but rarely seems to be forthcoming.

Perhaps the best you can hope for in terms of closure is to get a firm undertaking from the Health Inspectorate, the CQC and all those in a position to do so that they will ensure that conditions are actively improved so that such neglect is no longer tolerated in the future. I would also suggest contacting both your MP and the Secretary for Health, outlining your concerns and giving a detailed account of all the ways in which your mother's care fell short.

My experience, FWIW, is just to keep chipping away at the powers that be and sometimes it does produce honesty and genuine attempts to turn things around. It won't undo what might have happened in your mother's case but it might wake people up to how unacceptable any neglect or unkindness, or even the appearance of such, is in the care service, where providers are in the ultimate position of trust and responsibility every moment of every day.

I wish you so well x

[Cherylb]

Re: Advice please

Hi Miss FM,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my thread; and for your kind words.

You are quite right about 'elephant up the stairs' and when you are consumed with anger, guilt and helplessness it seems so much worse.

Since I posted I have had some contact from social services which began with half- hearted emails that I believe were professionals attempting to pass the buck. However, I have now have found a team manager who regrettably is in my opinion being quite obstructive. She persists in telling me that she is new in post and not familiar with 'the case'- this being my deceased mother. It reached the point whereby I advised her that she did not need to keep repeating this information and if she was unable to help me to give me the name of someone who could. She then said she needed to speak to this person and that person before she could comment further. I politely suggested a deadline for when she could 'comment further' as I feel I have been hanging around long enough waiting for a response. She categorically refused to do this and then suggested I contact the complaints department!?! I replied that this perhaps was the best course of action although not my original intention. She then informed me that she had spoken to someone 'in complaints' regarding the best way forward - although I hadn't requested this.

This is where I am at the moment, still waiting for her to come back to me; as I said I really do feel an element of obstruction here.

I have to say that I have been very impressed with how the CQC have dealt with all the information I have provided to them regarding the care home my mother was unfortunate to live for 12 months. They inspected them very quickly and the report is very thorough and confirms 100% the concerns I had. So for this I am grateful and hope that this will mean improvements are made and sustained, although I believe this would only be possible if there was a change in management and staff.

I will continue to pursue this and hope that I will reach a point of satisfaction in the knowledge that I did all I could.

Thank you again

Cheryl x


As you say I do have the option to contact the local MP and SFH and may well end up going down that road