Undercover: Elderly Care

Panorama - Monday 23.04.2012 - 8.30 pm - BBC1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gybn7

Panorama reveals the appalling treatment of an elderly care home resident with dementia, captured on film after a concerned relative hid a secret camera. The abuse - in a care home passed as "excellent" by the national regulator, the Care Quality Commission - has led to five care workers being sacked, with one pleading guilty to assault. It was recorded by a secret camera placed in the elderly woman's bedroom by her daughter, who speaks for the first time about what happened. Fiona Phillips, whose parents suffered from dementia and whose mother died in a care home, investigates whether the regulator and care home provider did enough to prevent such abuse and asks whether the system of elderly care itself can be trusted.

Ash Court Care Centre: 2009 CQC report - excellent - 3 stars - http://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/historic_reports/1-101610469_Ascham_Community_Care_2000_Limited_1-105863325_Ash_Court_Care_Centre-Camden_0000010320_20072009.pdf

Guy Indig: http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/913498479

Jack of All Trades - Master of None


You may need a strong stomach to read this article in today's Daily Mail - or a strong drink :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133673/I-used-spy-camera-catch-care-home-thug-beating-mother-How-daughters-suspicions-uncovered-harrowing-abuse.html?ICO=most_read_module

I will be watching the programme tonight, but probably though clenched teeth and clenched fists. Will this abuse ever stop? It is absolutely appalling that relatives have to put secret cameras in care homes to find out what is really going on to their loved ones. Its about time all care homes had cameras installed to protect the vulnerable people who are at the 'mercy' of their 'carers'. But I'm sure this will never happen as the ' human rights/data protection blah blah blah' brigades will not let it. As always, the sick and elderly are just sitting targets for these thugs who enjoy the abuse they carry out.

There's one positive that will come out of this. when the lags in prison find out his crime, I'm sure he will find a different meaning to having a bed bath and continuing care, Especialy at meal times, He will soon be sqealing for his mummy, and i hope it happens A.S.A.P


T/I

There's nothing I can say........sickening, horrible - what will happen, not a lot.
Miss Piggie

What an appalling story - words cannot describe the horror.

I did not know about The Residents and Relatives Association - any opinions from dolphins?

The abuse I witness on every visit is neglect - residents left on their own, no communication, TV blaring out - whilst care assistants play with their mobiles or read a book and the nurse has her back to the lounge writing up notes.

Who was to blame at Ash Court (and in my friend's care home)? The manager - and no action seems to have been taken. Not surprised there.

peterandjohn wrote: any opinions from dolphins?

Am no dolpin, but ask me tomorrow, PJ, when I've recovered my equilibrium after watching that programme.

I've got a few ideas - but I may need to swim in deep, deep, deep waters before I surface again.

Very hard to know what to say. Its often far from ideal.. but this is too painful.

But I do believe that the whole ethos of anything is decided upon by the values and beliefs of those at the top. There must be a lot of rotten 'top' here.

It's rotten to the core. From start to finish. From the inside to the outside. From top to bottom.

I know this is very close to one particular person's heart and so wish this awful situation could in some way prove to be supportive of their case.
I agree 100% the Manager should be sacked - if it's not their responsibility to ensure a Care Home is run in a caring manner what exactly is their role.
Problem is as P&J indicates, similar (hopefully not as bad) situations are happening on a daily basis to our elderly vulnerable people for whom either family or NHS are paying to be cared for.
Trouble is when we visit, our main concern is our relative but this is followed closely by keeping the staff on side so as to ensure their care is good - it's a very fine balance and I know sometimes I got it wrong, but was scared to say something on a number of occasions.
I was never trained to deal with this nor were any of us.
The whole world is about money - stay safe, don't get ill and stay at home regardless with any money you have stuffed in the mattress is the message I send.
MissPiggie

Allow me to explain why I say the system is rotten to the core.

Firstly, have a read of this article dated 8 August 2008. Take a deep breath before you click on the link, and get a glass of water or something stronger before you start to read:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1042549/Care-home-boss-suspended-dead-bodies-pensioners-left-days.html

When you've read the link, come back here and read what follows.
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OK, you've read that awful story from August 2008. The people mentioned in that article are not my relatives and I have no connection to them. The manager at first was indeed suspended, but she was then allowed to resign - thereby avoiding all disciplinary procedures.

Care UK comment in that report reads:
'The company's top priority is to provide the highest quality of care in a safe environment in all its homes.
'That priority has not been compromised in any way at Lennox House.
'The company has carried out an initial investigation and the manager at Lennox House has been suspended pending further inquiries.'

Reach for a large bucket of salt whenever you read "The company's top priority is to provide the highest quality of care in a safe environment in all its homes. That priority has not been compromised in any way at Lennox House."

Platitudes = meaningless words. A less polite word to describe it : 'bullshit'.

What the article doesn't mention - and neither would Care UK mention, of course - is the fact that a massive Improvement Plan (or Action Plan, depending on who's speaking) had been imposed on that care home since January 2008, a mere few days after my own relative died as a result of neglect in that same care home. Islington managed to keep everything behind closed doors, refusing even to allow me a full copy of the bloody report of an investigation into the neglect of my relative. I use the word 'bloody' in the sense of being stained with blood. I was only allowed a 25-page long abbreviated and anonymised report.

Goodness knows how long the full unadulterated report is. It remains in the hands of the evil-doers, and I include the whole of Care UK, the whole of Lennox House care home, Islington's commissioning department, their social services department, the Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults team, MHCOP (Mental Health Care of Older People) team, CSCI/CQC, the PHSO, the LGO. The ICO has read it and decided that it should not be made available to me. So as to protect the 'personal data' of those involved in the investigation and report.

The whole world of care has been allowed to read it - but I'm not allowed to see it. (Yes, I've jumped through every hoop.) They were all allowed to see it in Draft form and to ask for any amendments/corrections/alterations.

So much of the blood shed has been withheld from me.

The current Leader of Islington Council, Catherine West, was then just another Councillor. She called for Lennox House to be closed down. She was supportive of me - then, when she was just another Councillor. She is now Leader of the Council and she now couldn't give a toss. She wouldn't want to sully her fame and glory now. After all, Isington has three 25-year contracts with Care UK to run care homes for vulnerable older people with dementia. It would cost a small fortune to get out of those contracts, especially as their own Commissioning department had more fingers in the pie than they will ever let on.

Care UK's top-brass knew nothing of what had been going on in their care home until I got in touch with the Chief Exec and his underling (since resigned!) Director of Residential Care earlier in 2008, asking for answers to many of the questions I still had to ask, even after the first investigation. They knew nothing of the investigation either. They hadn't even seen the massive Action Plan imposed on their 'flagship' care home. That tight were the wraps around the investigation.

The first investigation failed to uncover what I subsequently uncovered - by getting hold of the GP records, and the full care home records. Those investigated - mostly from the Philippines - did not think it essential to tell the truth about certain matters, and the manager failed also to declare certain things. (Which I can't mention here.) There is no 'swearing on oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth' when these out-of-court investigations are carried out. No matter how great the need for Safeguarding - nobody needs to tell the truth. Great mistake in my opinion, because they can tell the fattest lies ever and nobody cares.

It took me to go through the records to work out what had been left out. By this time, 'ownership' of the investigation report was 'claimed' by the Council who took it out of the hands of the mental health team that had commissioned it.

Why would the Council want to claim ownership? It took me a while to work it out - because I've never been faced with this kind of stuff before. The investigation report ceased to be a document that would appear as part of the 'medical records' to which I would have had access, as the Executor. The report now became a document that could be held in protection by the Council - and nobody can now gain access.

My questions would not go away. Care UK offered another independent investigation that would 'answer all my questions'. I believed - then. Not so - it turned out that the now-resigned Manager refused to meet with Care UK, but did eventually meet six months later with the second investigation team. (I wonder how much she was paid, in order for her to agree to meet with the investigators?) By this time, a further 5 people involved were no longer 'employed' by Care UK and could not be compelled to attend for interview, so lo and behold, still more untruths were told, and the outcome of the second investigation was that Care UK spent £20K in order to find out that it was not fit to organise a piss-up in a brewery. I'd been telling them that for over a year - unpaid, of course.

If you want to read more, have a look at the NMC website - 30 April 2012 - hearings - scroll down to the names of Sheila Ali; Maria Rholyn Secuya; Dahlia Dela Cerna; Catherine Igbokwe. This will be the 3rd week - and there will be another week in July.

Read the charges -

http://www.nmc-uk.org/Hearings/Hearings-and-outcomes/April-2012/

The 'charges' don't reflect everything - there are gaps in the charges. I can't fill those gaps yet - because, after 4 years, this will drag on and on and on.

The world has forgotten the meaning of the word 'care'.

I care. I will continue to care.

What an awful story, Kermit. All power to your elbow (and whatever else you use to kick these blighters) in your 'dragged-on caring'.

I'll say no more than this about one aspect of our case: I recently talked to a Social Worker who was reporting on my friend and his care. One of the complaints I made was that the care home do not communicate with me. The Social Worker took the complaint to the home and was told that they regularly communicate with us. What do I do now? Nothing, because as Miss Piggie so well stated "keeping the staff on side so as to ensure their care is good - it's a very fine balance". In my case, the manager has already shown that problems will be made for me.

To put it frankly, I am scared stiff of rocking the boat for fear of the consequences; I do not trust these 'carers'. This will change when my friend goes to the great care home in the sky.

I could not watch the Panorama report live. (Coward) I watched it this afternoon in a very tense mood. I am not able to be rational at the moment in my comments so I will refrain at this time and save my energy to say a few prayers for those we all know who are suffering in similar circumstances tonight.
Sheba32

The Residents and Relatives Association (see above) have an e-petition which people here might like to sign:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33108

It seems to me to be something that many of us will support.

P&J

Done!

thanks for the link P&J

Done P&J. Thank you for the link.
Sheba32

Done it PJ.

Hi, PJ.

Been done did it, and Emailed link else where for others to sign

T/I

Me too...

Thanks everyone (not that I am anything to do with the Association but they did ask me to spread the word).

Hello Kermit,

Have been quiet over the last few days been a bit under the weather with a tummy bug.
Been hard working with it and have been to a meeting on Monday night that I could have done without. But I did find some interesting things out I will have to do some more checking on these first.
One concerned ssri side effects including a site with details of deaths in UK.
Many important links for people with dementia etc.
An apparent EU court ruling on doctors being allowed to falisify medical accounts.
This seems unbelievable.
And a remark by Ian S Crane about a friend of his in the London Met who had to do a investigation into care home abuse within the Met area. Upon the completing this report with proof of the abuse he was later handed his copy of the report back = now blank.

UK Care are poison and as corrupt as they come. UK Care are owned by Bridgepoint Capital Development who are a pan-european investment company whoses profitts are around 13 Billion.

John Nash Chairman of Care UK made a donation of £21,000 to the private office of Andrew Lansley now the Secretary of State for Health, then the health spokesman for the opposition.
Lansley has since been accused of a serious conflict of interest because Care UK would be one of the main benefactors of the new Health Bill.

Care UK also appears to be involved in what appears to be tax avoidance ( according to a report in The Guardian of 17th March 2012 --- I have downloaded a detailed report about this I will email this to you ). It would appear that Care UK has a reduced tax bill by taking out loans through the Channel Island Stock Exchange and coming to an agreement with HMRC.

From the downloaded report it wouldnt surprise me if another Southern Cross is on the cards.
Then the homes will be closed down/or sold on for more vast profits. It stinks, its corrupt.

Talking of corruption Kermit and your evil-doers of Islington doesnt surprise me in the least.

Its not only the elderly that have suffered at the hands of those with the powers that be in Islington but children with Islington being the centre for some of the worst child abuse rings in the UK.
Paedophile rings operating in children homes supplying children to people in higher places with links to Jersey and Belgium.

I have got loads of documents on my computer showing the levels of corruption and hiding the truth
and everything you say about not being allowed the see the full report is certainly common policy.

And its not just the staff in the Care Homes doing the abuse? I know one ladys sister who has been hit over the head with a stick and had her foot run over deliberately and been pushed around and verbally abused by a guy with dementia who was told when she complained to a staff member, "" Oh hes just old; he doesnt know what he is doing. With the attitude that it was nothing but like a kiddies game in the playground. Its just disgusting.
With these people the old dont matter.

Very kind regards la chatte