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Elderly residents at a care home were stuck in their rooms for months, starved and left in filthy sheets while their cries were ignored by staff who removed call buttons so they could sleep through shifts.Inspectors who visited the home in July were begged for water by residents, many of whom were suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
One told the inspectors that conditions were so bad he wanted to kill himself.
Killed: May Ward was being moved from her chair to her bed by a sling and hoist when she fell to the floor, but instead of calling for help nurses but the bloodied pensioner back in bed
Three years ago another resident, 100-year-old May Ward, was accidentally dropped on her head by two carers who waited 40 minutes before calling for help.
She died the next day. The horrific conditions have come to light after Care Quality Commission inspectors reported abuse they witnessed at the Meppershall Care Home near Shefford in Bedfordshire.
The home closed last month after the inspection, but the company which ran it, GA Projects, maintains its residents were ‘happy’. It continues to manage two other homes for vulnerable elderly people.
Inspectors found frail residents had been locked indoors for four months after a lift broke and was not repaired, leaving them distressed and isolated in their bedrooms.
Inspectors found frail residents of Meppershall Nursing Home had been locked indoors for four months after a lift broke
They were starved and desperate for water but staff ignored their calls. Residents even had their call bells, used to alert staff in emergencies, removed from their rooms.
A staff member told inspectors that carers slept on duty at night and removed the alarms so ‘they were not disturbed’.
When inspectors entered the bedrooms they found residents in sheets ‘encrusted with faecal matter, dried urine, blood and dead skin’.
The vulnerable pensioners were wearing soiled clothes and there was an ‘offensive’ odour throughout the home.
One resident told inspectors they were ‘desperate’ for a drink and had called for a nurse, but nobody had come.
When CQC officials asked a nurse to bring some water, the staff member twice ignored them. Asked if they were well cared for, the resident replied: ‘You must be joking.’
Care home of shame: Upon a visit, one elderly man told inspectors the conditions at Meppershall had made him suicidal
During one inspection, officials saw a care home worker pick up porridge from down the side of a chair, scrape it back into the bowl from which a resident was eating and wipe their fingers on it. Pies were served covered in mould to other residents suffering with dementia.
The inspectors reported that staff lacked ‘compassion and the skills and competency required to deliver basic care safely to people’.
They added: ‘People were left without food and fluids for long periods of time and their calls for help were frequently ignored by staff, leaving them in undignified and unsafe situations.’
Meppershall Care Home residents have since been moved to other homes. GA Projects also owns Wren Park Nursing Home in Bedfordshire and Tendring Meadows Residential Home in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
A spokesman for the company said: ‘The situation at Meppershall Care Home has been grossly exaggerated to justify the authorities’ decision to enforce closure. The majority of residents were happy and the problems identified could have been resolved.
‘There was not a single resident who would have chosen to leave and many are still distressed by their relocation and sadly think they will return. Our other homes have received good inspection reports.
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