Daughter's anguish as home admits breaching duty over her late father's care

A woman who placed her father in respite care at a Hebburn home was left devastated by the standard of care he received.

William Kelly, who had a history of UTIs and kidney infections, was admitted to Bedewell Grange Care Home, in Hebburn, in March 2017, nine weeks before his death in May 2017.

The care home has admitted five counts of breach of duty during the 85-year-old’s stay in a letter to his daughter, Jean Kelly.

The heartbroken daughter said: "It is shocking. I have to live with it now because I put him in that care home.

"I don’t want anyone else to go through what we’ve been through or anyone to suffer through what my dad went through.

"I put him in there to be cared for, but he wasn’t.”

The 70-year-old carer said that care records from during the great-grandfather’s stay show that he went 45 hours with no fluids or food.

And when Ms Kelly and her daughter Sharon went to pick him up 10 days into his stay they found Mr Kelly wearing another resident’s clothing which was too small.

After 10 days at the care home, Mr Kelly was taken to South Tyneside District Hospital by his daughter after being diagnosed with an acute kidney injury following routine scheduled tests carried out by his GP surgery.

He was in hospital for around six weeks and died at home in May 2017. There is no medical evidence linking his death to his stay at the home.

Barchester Healthcare Homes Ltd, the company which operates the care home, has admitted five counts of breach of duty during the 85-year-old’s stay, including failing to fill in a care plan within 24 hours which would have outlined his needs relating to Mr Kelly’s blindness – something Ms Kelly said was only realised by staff when her daughter visited four days into his stay.

Barchester also admitted allegations that staff failed to undertake appropriate record keeping of all aspects of his care and a failure to provide an appropriate standard of care to Mr Kelly during his admission to the care home.

They also admitted failing to adequately monitor his toilet patterns, despite his history of UTIs and kidney infections, and despite recurrent entries of incontinence failed to alert a senior staff member and liaise with his GP to obtain a urine sample for testing.

Jean, who has been a carer for 40 years, said: "Everyone knew dad, he was a lovely man. I cared for him with the help of other carers.

"He would have been a great great grandfather 17 hours after he passed away.”

An internal investigation was carried out by the care home’s general manager after concerns were raised.

Barchester Healthcare Homes Ltd has said there has since been changes made to procedures including the handover protocol, the admission process and a four-day review introduced for respite residents.

In a statement Barchester said: “The team at Bedewell Grange Care Home offer their deepest condolences to the family of Mr Kelly and have been in touch directly with his family to express this.

“Out of respect for the privacy of our residents we cannot comment further on individual details but would like to reassure all our residents and their families that the safety and wellbeing of our residents is at the forefront of everything we do.

"Indeed, from CQC inspections it can be seen that following the changes we made in 2017 the home has improved and we are delighted that it is now rated as ‘Good’ in its latest CQC report.”

An investigation by South Tyneside Council was also carried out after Ms Kelly raised concerns.

A spokesman for the Council said: "The safety and care of our residents is of paramount importance.

“We worked with the home to ensure that appropriate actions were taken to remedy the issues highlighted. "

The most recent Care Quality Commission inspection of the care home, published in November 2019, graded the site ‘good’.

A message to the editor:

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to the Shields Gazette website and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit here to sign up. You can subscribe to the newspaper with 20% off here. Thank you.