My mum was in an EMI 'care' home for about 12 months until 28th November 2005. On the evening of that day my sister received a telephone call from a member of staff at the home to say that my mum had had a fall and could not weight bear on one of her legs. The 'care' assistant asked my sister if she could go to the home and take my mum either to a local walk in centre or to hospital. My sister asked how she would manage to get my mum in the car if she could not walk and they said they had a wheelchair that could be used to transfer her to the car!

My sister phoned me and asked me to go to the home with her. We went there immediately and when we arrived found my mum sitting on a chair in the hall in a great deal of pain. I asked why an ambulance had not been called and was told this was because they were short staffed and would not have been able to spare a member of staff to accompany my mum to the hospital. I asked what difference this made and was told that paramedics would not take unaccompanied patients. I told them to call an ambulance and they did this. When the ambulance arrived I accompanied my mother to hospital and my sister followed in her car. The paramedics told me very quickly that they suspected a broken hip and this was later confirmed in the hospital. I asked the paramedics if they would have taken my mother if she was unaccompanied and they replied that of course they would - they frequently had to pick up unaccompanied patients in the street, some of whom were unconscious and had no id on them!

My mum had a hip replacement operation the following day. A week later someone from the home phoned my sister to say that they had been asked to assess my mum to see if it was possible for her to be discharged back to the home. Later that day my sister received another telephone call to say that it had been decided that the home could no longer meet my mother's needs so could her belongings be collected as soon as possible! We did not do this as we were unhappy with the speed of the decision and they way it had been communicated to us. We felt it was too soon to say that my mum would not be mobile enough to go back to the home. Later that week they phoned again and my sister told them she would not be collecting the belongings as we were unhappy with the decision. Later that night the owner of the home phoned to say that she had reconsidered the decision and my mum was still officially a resident.

Several weeks later my mum was again assessed to see if she could go back to the home and again they said they could not take her as they thought she needed nursing care. We did not fight the decision this time, we had decided we didn't want her to go back there anyway.

I later made a complaint to the CSCI about the fact that an ambulance had not been called when my mother first fell, about the fact that she was moved from the position in which she fell and about the way in which the home tried to 'evict' her without going through the correct procedures as outlined in our contract. The CSCI initially passed the complaint to the home to deal with directly. The owner of the home sent her reply to my sister, who had not made the complaint! The reply was very flimsy, evasive and either lied about things or did not answer them at all. I wrote to the CSCI to say I was unhappy with this and asking them to investigate it further. They did this and I got their final report on Friday.

The only wrong doing the home has admitted to is sending the response to my sister instead of myself. They stand by their reasons for not calling an ambulance before phoning my sister, even though the accident report states 'ambulance called, family informed', obviously attempting to insinuate that the ambulance was called first. Even though it has now come to light that the ambulance was not called until after we got there the CSCI don't make any criticism of this fact! Also, there were 3 members of staff on duty at the time, one of whom no longer works there. There were approximately 20 residents at the time. The telephone is at the end of a corridor near the back door into the garden. One member of staff is saying that she heard all of her colleague's side of the conversation and is backing up her story that my sister was never asked to drive my mum to the walk in centre or the hospital, that it was always the intention to phone an ambulance as soon as we got there. If there were only 3 members of staff at the time and there was one injured resident then why would 2 members of staff stand at the phone together to make the call!

I feel so angry and disappointed. My mum was let down firstly by the home and now by the CSCI in their accepting this web of lies from the home. Once the CSCI have completed their so called investigation then there seems to be nowhere else to go, short of legal action. If the CSCI will not look out for our most vulnerable people then what hope is there?

 

Thanks Jamee

I do often wonder about whether she really fell or whether she was pushed or someone was a bit rough with her. I think if they'd handled the situation better then I wouldn't be having these thoughts.

Also one of the staff who used to work there now works in the nursing home my mum is in. She wasn't there at the time but her best friend was .....

 

Hi Elaine

My mum is OK thanks but is unfortunately confined to a wheelchair. She had some very limited physio in hospital but has had none since, yet another problem that I am trying to sort out.

Sometimes it feels that I have to constantly fight for everything and that I don't actually achieve anything in the end!

 

Hi Norman

I have looked at this previously and one of the first things that it says is 'it does not cover complaints to us about a care provider'. I'm not sure what other reasons anyone would have to complaint about the CSCI! I am considering other avenues including the MP but from my limited knowledge of her she's pretty useless anyway!

 

However, I have just read it through again and it actually says somewhere else that it does not cover 'initial' complaints. I will look into this further. I have already emailed the manager of the inspector who carried out the investigation to say I am not happy and want to take it further. If she comes back and says there is no 'further' then I will see. I'm definitely nowhere near finished with this!

 

I have now had an email back from the Regulation Manager at the CSCI acknowledging the fact that I am not happy with the outcome of the investigation. She says that in these situations it is procedure for the Regulation Manager to re-examine the evidence and she will be doing this. However she is on leave until 3rd April but will try to get back to me by 18th April.

I'm not confident that I will get a more satisfactory answer, but at least they know I haven't given up! I waited about 3 weeks to hear anything after I had told the inspector that I wasn't happy with the home's response and I wanted the CSCI to investigate so I emailed asking for an update. She then wrote to say she would get back to me within a week when she had produced her report and discussed it with her line manager. Her line manager is the one who now has to review the evidence when supposedly she has already seen it!

I am intending to email them again and pinpoint several things. If I just have them reinvestigating on the basis that I am 'not happy' with the result then I feel I am less likely to get any kind of answers than if I reiterate the problems with emphasis on the latest so called answers from the home ie I intend to ask them if they see it as being acceptable to not call an ambulance until a resident's family have arrived, thus leaving the resident in pain for longer than necessary (my mother actually said 'I want to die' and I have never heard her speak like that before). Also I asked in my last email to them why she was moved and I have had no answer at all to that one.

The latest excuse for not calling the ambulance before we arrived was that on a previous occasion the paramedics had refused to take an unaccompanied resident. I don't know if that is true but if it is it should have been taken up with the ambulance service at the time, my mother should not have been made to suffer for that reason.

I did send an email to Action on Elder Abuse without going into great detail but I have not had a reply.

Anyway, watch this space! Thanks everyone for their support in this matter.

 

I've just sent an email to the regulation manager at the CSCI who will be looking at the complaint. She is back in work tomorrow and I have been putting off sending the email but feel better now it is done.

I did email Action on Elder Abuse twice asking for advice and did not get a reply from them! Not my favourite charity now!

I'm just going to have to wait and see what happens next. The regulation manager has until 18th April to respond. I'm not feeling optimistic though.

 

I had a phone call from the CSCI today. I was told that the Regulation Manager who has to look at my case is on sick leave so there will be a delay in her response. She had told me she would respond by 18th April at the latest, so don't know how long it will be now. They did say she would be back in work next week but I would have thought that they couldn't be 100% sure of that.

 

Hi Tender Face

I think she is probably the 'top dog' in the office, although I'm not sure. If that's the case then I didn't want it to be delegated to someone below her as that could mean that the person who initially handled it would look at it again, which would be pointless.

I am considering seeing a solicitor if I don't get anywhere with this. If the home had admitted its mistakes in the first place, apologised and promised to tighten up its procedures then I would have left it at that. As they will not accept any responsibility whatsoever then I am not accepting it and will fight on.

I am very disappointed with Action on Elder Abuse. I sent them a brief email asking for advice. When I got no reply I emailed them again and still had no reply, even though I know the emails had been opened!

Thanks for your support.

 

Hi Norman

The home is privately owned by a husband and wife who also own another home in the same area. They are both EMI 'care' homes. Ironically the husband's father is in a nursing home!

 

Hi Brucie

No, I haven't phoned them yet but will do if I feel the need and will mention the problem with the emails. I don't understand the point in someone reading them if they're not going to act on them, or pass them to someone else to act on!

I think that in certain circumstances the (spoken) word may be better,but not in all. I think that if you ring up, especially with a complaint, you may have everything prepared that you want to say, even to the extent of writing it down. The problem is that the person you are speaking to is not reading from the same script so can throw you with an unexpected comment or question. When I first made the complaint about the care home it was done by telephone but when the initial response was unsatisfactory I emailed back. This meant that if anything was not addressed when it was responded to then I had proof that the point had been raised. When the complaint was raised on the telephone someone made notes and passed it on to someone else to deal with. This meant that a lot could be lost in translation.