Management at a care home in Wishaw have apologised to the family of an elderly woman who died days after being “abused” by a member of staff.
The family of Evelyn Gallagher are angry that bosses at Morningside Care Home failed to disclose information about the incident and the outcome of an investigation until 10 months after her death.
The 81-year-old had vascular dementia and moved into Morningside Care Home in February 2021.
Days before Evelyn died in September last year, a member of staff was reported for “verbally abusing” her.
Evelyn’s daughter Margaret Gallagher had raised concerns at Morningside about her mum’s care prior to her death.
She said: “We were looking after my mum 24/7 in the house before she went in to Morningside.
“We just couldn’t look after her anymore as she was getting worse. I looked at the regulator reports for a few places and we decided on Morningside.
“We couldn’t visit because of Covid, so I never got in to see her until July. We noticed a couple of things, she was wearing other people’s clothes and getting cold food.
"My mum was telling them, ‘It’s colder than my orange juice.’ So I raised it with the manager at the time. They told us things would improve."
The family also alleged the pensioner was given prescribed medication that left her “comatose”.
“On two occasions we went in and she couldn’t open her eyes and they told us she was ‘tired’,” said Margaret. “She wasn’t like that when she was tired - she was comatose.”
Evelyn had mobility problems and a special sensor mat was installed beside her bed to alert staff when she got up.
“Mum fell a number of times in Morningside and I had a meeting and they told me she was kicking the mat away, but surely that should alert staff that she was getting up. Then they told me she was by-passing the mat. They tried to fob me off.
“I had another meeting arranged with them but I received a call saying she had another fall on the Thursday night and was taken to hospital. Around 8am the next morning we got a call to go to the hospital saying mum had deteriorated. She died on the Saturday.”
But it’s what’s happened since her mum passed away that has most angered Margaret, as the family attempted to obtain details of the “abuse” incident.
Evelyn’s family had hit a brick wall until recently, when they received a letter which outlined details of the incident, and apologised for the distress caused and delay in releasing information.
Margaret continued: “I met with social work and the care home manager the following Wednesday [after Evelyn's death]. They weren’t keen but I felt the issues had to be raised formally so that other people who maybe didn’t have anyone to speak for them would get a better service.
“At the meeting they told me that my mum had suffered some form of abuse the previous Sunday and a member of staff had been suspended. I have an HR background and asked what had happened but they just said there would be an investigation.”
The family fear the individual could still be working in a care environment elsewhere.
Margaret added: “It took the business 10 months to give me basic information relating to the incident. This course of action will not bring our mum back but if exposing the issues makes it better for other vulnerable people then this has not been futile.”
The Care Inspectorate has so far upheld four complaints made by the family.
A spokesperson for Morningside care home said: “As soon as we became aware of the concerns, we alerted the relevant authorities and launched an investigation, which resulted in the dismissal of a member of staff.
"After consulting with local healthcare partners, we did not immediately inform the family of the allegations and the steps we were taking as their relative was very unwell and we did not wish to cause further distress.
“Although we were acting in good faith, we accept the Care Inspectorate’s findings about the way we handled the matter and we have introduced a range of measures to improve our complaints procedures. We sincerely apologise to the family for our miscommunications.
"The safety and well-being of our residents and their families is our utmost priority and the high standards of wellbeing at Morningside have previously been recognised by the Care Inspectorate.”
*Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.
