A woman had to be carried down three flights of stairs after she broke her arm because the lift in her retirement home was broken
The son of one resident has told the ECHO about how people living in Reynolds Court, in Woolton, were forced to come together to help the less mobile pensioners living in the complex when the one lift that serves the 60 apartments was left unfixed for six days. The son also revealed that he put in a formal complaint after he found out about the broken lift but is yet to receive an acknowledgement.
He said: "One woman fell and broke her arm, and when paramedics came they had to carry her down the stairs. She lives on the third floor. Since the lift broke people living there have had to rally around together in this situation.
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"My mum lives on the second floor but the stairwells are like internal fire escapes. My mum has hip and knee problems as well so she struggles with stairs. She's had help with people living there taking her rubbish out and things.
"It's a nice apartment but this was a real issue."
The son also said that he relies on knowing his mum is safe and looked after with him living 50 miles away. He added: "This is why I get really frustrated, she's one of the oldest residents and doesn't need the stress. They charge a lot of money for these apartments and I don't want her using the stairs. I live 50 miles away so I need to know she's safe."
FirstPort, the company that works on behalf of the landlord to ensure that the building and residents are looked after, said that the building has one lift due to it being classed as independent living. If residents feel the need they can progress to assisted living where there are two lifts for less mobile people.
The company also confirmed that it undertakes proactive lift maintenance regularly throughout the years on all lifts it manages and that when an unforeseen breakdown does happen the company will do what it can do to speed up the process of getting it fixed.
A spokesperson for the property management company said: “We would like to apologise to the residents of Reynolds Court for the inconvenience caused by the lift breakdown last week. We know that a lift being out of action for several days at a retirement development can be difficult and, as soon as our staff were made aware, they worked to get the problem resolved as soon as possible.
“Unfortunately, lifts do experience problems from time to time, and, in this case, a new replacement part was needed. However, we can confirm that the lift was repaired earlier this week and is now fully working.”
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