Carers Accused Of Faking Log Of Home Visits To Woman, 83

Carers faked a log claiming they had continued to check an elderly woman in her home for a week after she had been admitted to hospital, it was alleged yesterday.

Wilhelmina Dart, 83, was rushed to hospital by her daughter after she found her on the floor having suffered a stroke.

Not realising Dart was in hospital, carers, who were paid to spend half an hour with her on weekdays, let themselves into her home and signed the log saying they had seen and checked her, it was claimed. Had they gone upstairs they would have realised she was not there.

Dart’s daughter, Patricia Handford, said yesterday that had she not visited her mother, Dart could have lain on the floor for more than a week. “It is disgraceful,” she said. “I wonder how often this has happened all around the country?”

Two carers have been suspended while the Devon agency that employs them, 1st React Healthcare, investigates. Devon county council and the Commission for Social Care Inspection have been informed.

Dart’s family say she was taken into hospital on February 23, a day the carers were not due to visit. Handford found an entry in the log for February 27 – four days after Dart had been taken to hospital – which read: “Staying in bed.” Handford, a supply teacher, decided not to complain immediately but to monitor the log. On February 28, the same carer allegedly wrote: “Again staying in bed. Cat fed and watered.”

On February 29, a different carer wrote: “Mrs Dart in bed on arrival. Fed + watered cat. Took cup of tea up to Mrs Dart, said she was staying in bed. Stayed and had a chat – didn’t want anything done. All OK.” It was not until nine days after she was admitted to hospital that a carer checked her bedroom. The carer wrote: “Arrived 9.45am. Mrs Dart wasn’t here.”

In a separate case, Birmingham council was found to have “failed utterly” a deaf woman with a learning disability. The council left the woman for 10 years in an unregistered foster placement, where she was allegedly treated as a child, sent to bed at 7pm, prevented from using sign language and obstructed from contacting the family that had first fostered her.

The local government ombudsman, Anne Seex, says in an inquiry report that the case highlights many failures by Birmingham’s learning disability service, which had up to 75% of its posts unfilled.