To quote Andrea Sutcliffe,
Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at the CQC “Care homes are people’s homes.
They, their family and friends should not live in fear of being penalised for
raising concerns”. “Good providers know
this and we see plenty of excellent practice where managers and staff respond
to complaints positively and make sure it is as easy as possible for people to
visit their loved ones in a welcoming, friendly environment”.
This clearly was not adhered
to in a recent report in the press.
Devout nun and former nurse, 67, escorted from nursing home by COPS and banned from returning after helping elderly friend outof bed to change
In November 2016, the CQC even
released Information for people on their visiting rights in care homes. This document stated that the CQC had published
information for people living in care homes, their family and friends
clarifying their visiting rights and our expectations of providers who are
responsible for ensuring people are supported to maintain relationships that
are important to them.
But was totally left in
ambiguity.
What is the message that the
care home is sending when it called the Police on a 67-year-old nun for supposedly
breaching health and safety by moving her friend to help he get dressed into
clean clothes? The home clearly in
breach of common sense and the CQC’s own guidelines tried to show themselves in
a better light by claiming the forceful action was necessary because the nun
had “violated approved safeguarding procedures” by helping Parkinson’s
Disease sufferer Nora out of bed.
Firstly, there was no crime
committed. The police should have
directly addressed this with the home, the service manager and those
responsible for calling them. Those
people need to be charged with wasting police time and resources which is
actually a crime.
In England and Wales, one can be charged with the offence under Section
5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967
when one "causes any wasteful employment of the police" by
"knowingly making to any person a false report" which:
(1)
Shows
that a criminal offence has been committed,
(2)
Creates
apprehension for the safety of any persons or property, or
(3)
Indicates
that they have information material to any police inquiry.
But it didn’t end there, no
the home called the police a second time just days later when the nun and
former nurse drove her friends partner, Sean Corry, 84, back to the BUPA owned
care home for a visit. The nun claims
she was made to wait by the front door for 45 minutes while police were called
again to escort her from the premises.
Concerns had already been made
to the CQC when the nun reported the home to the CQC in 2015 after becoming
concerned for her friend’s welfare. And
the home had received a “requires improvement” rating after inspectors found
several breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
According to BUPA Managing Director
Kay Cox said: “We take all complaints made to our homes very seriously and
immediately investigated these concerns.
“We work closely with the council’s safeguarding team who have reviewed
the situation and are confident we have taken all the right steps to ensure the
service users safety. “We have strict
rules to protect the health and wellbeing of our residents and lifting
residents requires two trained care home staff. We therefore always ask all
visitors to our homes not to attempt to lift residents from their beds and
instead ask for assistance from our carers.”
What I want to know and the
CQC should be demanding to know is the statement “We therefore always ask all
visitors to our homes not to attempt to lift residents from their beds”, do the
care home explain to residents, their families and friends that if they do lift
residents from their beds the police will be called and they will be banned
from the premises? Is that made clear to
everyone?
And remember that the CQC
state in their own press release Making a complaint should not cause problems. Staff should seek your views and the views of
your loved one. A good, open
relationship with staff is best for your loved one and more importantly visiting
someone can help improve their care
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