Staff abused in street after care home resident’s death

CARE workers at the Elsie Inglis Nursing Home have been called “murderers” and chased down the street, employees have said.

The Abbeyhill facility, which was today shut down by inspectors following the discovery of dozens of failings at the home, is under investigation by police following the death of a 59-year-old woman.

Officers said they had now sent their findings to the procurator fiscal, who will consider whether to take criminal action against a number of workers.

The staff member in charge of looking after Down’s syndrome patient Lynn Beveridge, who died last Wednesday after being taken to hospital suffering serious breathing difficulties, was immediately suspended. As many as six other residents have been taken to hospital in the last two weeks.

A number of staff members said they had tried to warn the manager, who resigned with immediate effect after a damning inspection report in April.

An inspection by Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland revealed that patients had been left to eat stews with their fingers, health charts weren’t filled in properly and staff were not properly trained. Several residents had painful sores, mattresses were stained and ripped and there were 20 outbreaks of infection during 2010, affecting 72 patients.

One staff member, who asked not to be named, said staff “held their hands up” at the “terrible” things that had gone on at the home, but she stressed that some staff had “done everything by the book” and had repeatedly brought up the issues at the facility.

She said several members of staff had been harassed since news of Ms Beveridge’s death, called “murderers” and had been rejected for new jobs.

She said: “We hold our hands up that things were wrong, but we’re really upset that this has happened. The number of times we reported pressure sores, that we needed new equipment, that we were short staffed, it was ridiculous. We kept reporting anything that was wrong and were told they didn’t have enough money.

“None of us are saying this stuff didn’t happen, but a lot of us were doing double the work while others did nothing at all. Some staff would sit around watching TV while we were run off our feet. Some of us genuinely cared about our job.

“Decent people are trying to get new jobs, but we’ve had people hanging up on us and refusing to take anyone from Elsie Inglis. One woman was followed to the bus stop and had a person shouting at her.

“People across the road have screamed abuse at us, called us murderers. We think what happened to Lynn Beveridge was heartbreaking.”

A spokesman for the home’s owners, Nawal and Susheela Bagaria, said: “Our staff have been very supportive and loyal to us, the home, and the residents. The closure of the home will mean over 100 staff members will be made redundant.”

He added that the bosses had decided to voluntarily close the home based on recent events.

A police spokesman confirmed that their findings relating to the death of Ms Beveridge had been reported to the procurator fiscal. He said: “We are now leading an investigation into the circumstances of her death, in partnership with the Health and Safety Executive and Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland.”

‘DISGUSTING’ CONDITIONS

AN ambulance technician who helped to transport residents from the Elsie Inglis Nursing Home to a city hospital has spoken of the “disgusting” condition in which they were found.

The man, who didn’t want to be named, said some residents had been left sitting in their own urine and excrement for at least a day.

The ambulance technician was helping to move eight residents to the Astley Ainslie Hospital last week after the nursing home was evacuated amid “serious concerns” about its quality of care.

He said two of the four ambulances involved had to be taken off the road for the rest of the day to be cleaned.

“Some of the residents were all wet and soiled and had been sitting in their own waste for at least 12 hours,” he said.

“We ended up taking our vehicles off because the residents had been sitting on blankets on top of the stretchers and they were saturated. It was disgusting.

“There was no care. You wouldn’t do that to your pet dog.”

He added that it was the worst case of neglect he had ever come across at a care home.