Annual Report Highlights Link Between Covid-19 Pandemic and Neglect in West Berkshire Care Homes

An increase in instances of neglect in some West Berkshire care homes has been highlighted in the latest annual report released by the West of Berkshire Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board. The cases of neglect have not been blamed solely on the staffing issues caused by the series of waves of Covid-19, but the report does stress that it has caused “considerable strain” on the sector.

The report states that there has been a 50% increase in concerns related to elder care in Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire over the last year. Six of the cases of neglect discovered were extremely harrowing, including one man who was found covered in urine and who had bruises all over his body and 12 pressure sores. Pressure sores can lead to severe infection and sepsis if left untreated but are avoidable if normal monitoring and mitigation takes place.

In the case of the neglected 89 year old, a man called Ben, his condition was not noticed until he was admitted to hospital. His daughter had already contacted the nursing home where he was a resident, telling them that he had not been attended to for days, had not been fed or washed and his catheter had been pulled out, resulting in him becoming covered in urine. On admission to hospital, his 12 pressure sores were observed and attended to. The hospital issued a notice of “safeguarding concern.” This notice was categorised as a “suspected act of omission and neglect” by the nursing home. Ben’s daughter was told that the nursing home was experiencing “staff shortages” by a staff member where her father was a resident.

Despite the gross negligence involved, the nursing home has not been penalised and no criminal charges have been laid against it due to lack of evidence. Ben’s daughter said that lessons should be learned from her father’s experience.  “Professionals should ensure that they take responsibility for referring and follow up the outcome of that referral, when pathways relevant to their role are not/or no longer appropriate,” she said.

In another case of neglect reported by the annual report, a woman called Carol was the victim of a lack of safeguarding oversight by the local authority in which she lived. In Carol’s case, she had injured her shoulder in an accident after her husband had passed away and then started to drink too much alcohol as well as failed to take medication prescribed for symptoms of schizophrenia. Carol was not a resident in a nursing home, but had been attended to by different agencies including a hospital, a home care agency and community mental health support, but had somehow fallen into an administrative gap. Not long after she was released from hospital, she was discovered dead in her own home. No-one had monitored her state of well-being between the time she was released to the date that she was discovered to have passed away.

Referring to the cases of neglect in the report, the chair of the Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board, Teresa Bell, admitted that the pandemic had put “huge strain on services” and made it more difficult to provide adequate care.