Briars residents ‘were handled poorly’ at Southampton care home

AN occupational therapist told the Southampton care home trial she considered the technique of how residents were manually handled as “very poor.”

Sharon Stewart, who works for the city council, made her observations after visiting The Briars Retirement Home in June 2007, and was so concerned she sent an email to colleagues in the adult social care unit.

She told jurors at Southampton Crown Court how she had seen manager Margaret Priest and another carer lift bedridden resident Nora Hunter.

“Mrs Priest took her from underneath the arm on to a Zimmer frame. It is viewed as an illegal manoeuvre,” she explained. “It is not safe because it can cause a dislocation in the person’s shoulder when they are being dragged up. The person making the manoeuvre could also injure their back.”

Mrs Stewart said Priest and the carer had also not told Mrs Hunter what they were about to do.

When Mrs Hunter got up, she knocked the Zimmer and Priest had to put her foot on the bar to prevent the frame from falling over.

Mrs Stewart told the city crown court another resident Barbara Steart had been lying on a fixed sheet that had become tangled up. “If it became tangled, it could cause increased pressure points,” she told the court.

Jurors heard how Mrs Stewart expressed her concerns to Priest and the care home’s owner Annette Hopkins about “the inappropriate” handling.

“I said to Margaret how could she train other carers on proper handling procedures if she wasn’t doing them herself,” said Mrs Stewart.

During the visit, Priest told her during a chat in the dining room how her only training had come from watching a video and she had not received any practical instruction. “My view was that the manual handling techniques was very poor,” Mrs Stewart told the court.

Giving evidence, she told how she had advised Hopkins to go on the website of the British Association of Occupational Therapists, but when she telephoned her five days later, Hopkins said she had not had the opportunity to do so.

Mrs Stewart also told the court how she saw and smelt old urine under the mattress of another resident, Rosina.

Hopkins, 64, of Thorold Road, Bitterne, and Priest, 56, of Lydgate Green, Hightown, deny charges of ill-treatment and neglect of 16 residents.