A 93-YEAR-OLD woman died after being left without any care for three days when carers wrongly assumed she had been admitted to hospital, an inquest was told.
Elsie Melling, of Grosvenor Drive, Barnsley, died in Barnsley Hospital on February 7 of heart failure and high blood pressure.
At the inquest this week, Ian Jukes, director of Creative Care and Support which was providing the care to Mrs Melling, apologised to her family.
He said the error occurred after Mrs Melling had suffered a fall at home. When a carer arrived at lunchtime, Mrs Melling was with a podiatrist who said the emergency services were on their way.
He said: “The podiatrist said ‘you can go, the ambulance is on its way,’ that’s the message that was relayed to our office. We took that as she was going to hospital. We should have checked that thoroughly. That was our mistake and I want to apologise to Mrs Melling’s family for that.
“We shouldn’t have accepted that, and the person knew she had made a mistake. We now have a more robust policy in place.”
Mrs Melling’s daughters Julie Loveland and Patricia Marshall were in court, and Julie described how she had found her mother on January 28. She had not taken her heart medication.
Julie said: “I always visit her on a Sunday. I knew something wasn’t quite right because the curtains weren’t open. She hadn’t had any medication for three days, she was still in her pyjamas and the heating wasn’t on so she was sitting in the cold. I could see she had tried to make a cup of tea, but she’d not had anything to eat.
“Normally, the carers came four times a day, for her medication more than anything else. I tried phoning the care company, but no one answered. She had a lifeline fitted, and I rang the lifeline and they were marvellous. They got in touch with the care company."
Mrs Melling was later taken to hospital.
Julie said that three days before she found her, her mother had slipped out of her chair and was found by a podiatrist. Although an ambulance was called, she had not needed to go to hospital.
She said: “When the carer had been at lunchtime, they thought she was going in to hospital and reported back that she was going in to hospital. But she didn’t, they made the assumption she had. There was no need to go. She was fine.”
Mr Jukes said the organisation had had a good relationship with Mrs Melling and her family up until this incident. Assistant coroner David Urpeth said his evidence during the hearing had been ‘open and frank’.
Mr Jukes reassured Mr Urpeth that measures had since been put in place and carers would now always attend unless it was confirmed by relatives or the hospital that the person receiving care had been admitted.
Patricia told Mr Jukes: “If you had rang me or Julie she wouldn’t have been left for three days on her own.”
Mr Jukes said: “That was an occasion where we didn’t communicate with the family.”
Following Mrs Melling’s death, an investigation was carried out by Barnsley social services team and hospital safeguarding.
Mr Urpeth did not find there had been neglect, but said the failures had been ‘gross’.
He recorded a narrative verdict, which stated: “There was a breakdown in communication which led to Mrs Melling not receiving care for a three day period.
“As I have already found, I can’t say that would have made a difference - all we know is that she lost the chance of it making a difference and that is a terrible tragedy for her and all those she leaves behind.”
After the inquest, Mr Jukes said: “It was the case that we made a significant error in the care of Mrs Melling and we have met with her family on several occasions to offer our sincere apologies.
“We are a local company and pride ourselves on the best possible care for our service users. To this end, every possible step has been taken to ensure the error is not repeated.”
