Nursing home liability re lost property

Ellaroo

Registered User
Nov 16, 2015
161
0
Liverpool
Mum is in temp care as main carer have been in hospital for surgery andcstill recovering.
Her glasses have been missing over 2 weeks now and will have to be replaced.
They will cost £200 and as mum isnt mobile , somebodyelse has misplaced them .
I expect home to pay . Has anybody any advice or experience of something similar?
They had a tag with her name on and deputy manager put a chain on them for me last time i saw mum wear them.
They must have insurance surely .
 

Jessbow

Registered User
Mar 1, 2013
5,680
0
Midlands
Read the small print in your contract- there is probably a clause.

Have you raised it with them? What do they say?
 

jaymor

Registered User
Jul 14, 2006
15,604
0
South Staffordshire
My husband's glasses, as did others, went walk about quite often. They were marked and identifiable as his glasses. the carers did look for them and they did eventually turn up. Glasses are so easy for other residents to pick up thinking they are theirs. They get put in drawers, handbags, pockets and unfortunately get caught up in bed linen when beds are changed. I went one day and a resident was sitting asleep in his armchair with a pair of glasses on, a pair in his top pocket and my husband's pair slipped rakishly down the front of his shirt.

Speak to the management and ask about insurance, if they have not put much effort into looking it might make them look a bit harder if they think they might have to pay for them.

I did have to replace my husband's glasses a couple of times because he broke them. He originally had expensive 'bendy' frames because he took them off a lot at home by pulling the arms outwards instead of slipping them off. He did the same in the nursing home and on my second visit to the optician he advised me to have normal frames and he could supply those for £25.
 

Chemmy

Registered User
Nov 7, 2011
7,589
0
Yorkshire
I gave up with glasses for mum in the end. Her last pair were a basic frame in bright Barbie pink as I thought they'd be easy to track down (especially if someone else was wearing them :D) but they only lasted a fortnight.

As Jaymor says, if there are others who are mobile but with dementia, it is very hard for the staff to keep on top of this. I 'lost' a makeup bag once on a visit so took to wearing a cross the body handbag so that I never had to put it down.
 

di65

Registered User
Feb 28, 2013
786
0
new zealand
Hi Ellaroo.
Unfortunately the loss of items such as glasses is a very common occurrence when a person enters a care home. There are a myriad of reasons, some of which have been discussed in other posts. On a hunt for my husbands glasses one day, a staff member told me that the resident takes an aversion to their glasses for some reason and disown them, sometimes wrapping them and putting them in the rubbish bin. Naturally the cleaning staff wouldn't investigate everything in every rubbish bin when emptying them, resulting in many items being lost altogether. It is advised that no small items of value be left with the resident

I hope the glasses resurface :):)
 

Ellaroo

Registered User
Nov 16, 2015
161
0
Liverpool
Thanks for all replies. Im going to speak to the manager today.
Mum isnt mobile so i know she hasnt put them in bin etc.
I had a black chain on them too, plus a name tag.
I dont think they are looking hard enough and it might jog them on to try and find them.
Mum is funded by Soc service with me paying top up. Ill just dedect it off final bill if they blatantly refuse.
Thank goodness shes coming home soon as my treatment finishes. I couldnt cope all the time with what you have to face when you visit.
One day mum was sitting in main lounge slinky top but no bra, plenty of bras in her room but was told she didnt want it on ? I took her in room and put it on ?
I think system is geared for short cuts .
Appreciate your comments and support at a v stressful time for me
 

SnowWhite

Registered User
Nov 18, 2016
699
0
Unfortunately this seems to be a common problem in some homes. I have an uncle with dementia and his elderly wife says his care home is always losing stuff. He's lost new slippers, expensive new leather shoes, hearing aids and even the TV Ashe took in for him disappeared and he was given another one. JUst not good enough,
 

jaymor

Registered User
Jul 14, 2006
15,604
0
South Staffordshire
It certainly is a problem, I think many of us have it at home too. We have one person to look after who ' looses' things all the time by putting them in unusual places to keep safe and then forgetting where they are. In a care home this is multiplied by however many residents they have. It is annoying but it can't be easy.

I once took two pork chops out of the freezer and put them on a plate to defrost. I returned to the kitchen 5 minutes later and the chops had disappeared and the plate was back in the cupboard unwashed. Had my husband moved them, no he said he had not seen any chops or a plate. Several days later I opened the cupboard that the central heating boiler was and there on top of it were two pork chops and half a pound of butter that had gone missing the week before. He had obviously put both the butter and the chops on the boiler to defrost, well I think that was the reason he put them there.

I had just one person to watch and I failed.
 

Boldredrosie

Registered User
Mar 13, 2012
244
0
Ma's been in her home since April 2016, so far we've lost one set of specs and both dentures. I haven't even bothered having a go at the home but I do whinge about them looking for these things.

In a home with people with no memory it's simple too easy for things to go missing.
 

Georgina63

Registered User
Aug 11, 2014
973
0
So far we've lost Dad's hearing aids and also Mum and Dad's glasses. One pair were found but need replacing. I'm not suprised at all given how PWD wander and pick things up etc....not sure more could be done by the CH. I think we are close to giving up on the earring aids as Dad needs reminding to wear them - We will not replace the private ones and will now use his NHS ones. With the glasses, CH are arranging an optician visit and we will more easily be able to replace them in the future.....
A constant challenge I think! Gx
 

Slugsta

Registered User
Aug 25, 2015
2,758
0
South coast of England
Mum is still in her own home and lost 3 hearing aids in as many weeks! I can easily understand how these can go missing, they are much smaller and more discrete than they used to be, which makes them harder to find.

Specs are a different matter - Mum's latest pair cost more than £300 (and the frames were cheap). Having to replace those would be a real problem :eek:
 

Lona

New member
Feb 26, 2021
5
0
My husband was evicted from his Carehome as they could not cope with his night time wanderings. I found another carehome and he has settled in nicely and they are coping well with his wanderings.
Lots of his possessions were not returned to his new carehome and I wrote them off as it was too stressful trying to recover his stuff. However because they had not returned his 3 pairs of glasses I referred them to there insurance policy on the original agreement which I signed.

They did not respond and when I insisted they then came up with lots of excuses and referred that it was a complaint. I explained I wasn't putting in a complaint but an insurance claim after must passing the buck my claim excalated to the owners and I was awarded £200. This will not recover the full cost but it's worth asserting your rights as you will be fobbed off rather than them being reasonable.
 

ijan

New member
May 16, 2023
2
0
Mum is in temp care as main carer have been in hospital for surgery andcstill recovering.







Her glasses have been missing over 2 weeks now and will have to be replaced.







They will cost £200 and as mum isnt mobile , somebodyelse has misplaced them .







I expect home to pay . Has anybody any advice or experience of something similar?







They had a tag with her name on and deputy manager put a chain on them for me last time i saw mum wear them.







They must have insurance sMyurely .
 

ijan

New member
May 16, 2023
2
0
My partner false teeth gone missing in care homee it's impossible for him to remove them his self with parkinsons and brain damage care hone saying there not liable
 

Firecatcher

Registered User
Jan 6, 2020
579
0
My husband was evicted from his Carehome as they could not cope with his night time wanderings. I found another carehome and he has settled in nicely and they are coping well with his wanderings.
Lots of his possessions were not returned to his new carehome and I wrote them off as it was too stressful trying to recover his stuff. However because they had not returned his 3 pairs of glasses I referred them to there insurance policy on the original agreement which I signed.

They did not respond and when I insisted they then came up with lots of excuses and referred that it was a complaint. I explained I wasn't putting in a complaint but an insurance claim after must passing the buck my claim excalated to the owners and I was awarded £200. This will not recover the full cost but it's worth asserting your rights as you will be fobbed off rather than them being reasonable.
Well done for being persistent and not allowing them to fob you off. I hope this has been a learning experience for the care home.