Nottingham care home stroke victim left for five hours

A woman who suffered a stroke at her care home was left for five hours before staff called an ambulance. Eileen Rock, of Nottingham, was left in a “distressed” state at the council-run home until her daughter arrived and “demanded” paramedics were called.
The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) described the case as “very serious” and said staff require more training.

Nottingham City Council apologised and fully accepted the findings in the LGO’s report.

Speech affected

The report criticised the care home for not calling for emergency help immediately after Mrs Rock, 79, suffered the stroke at around 07:30 BST.

Instead, her daughter Anita, was called by staff at 12:00 to be informed her mother had suffered a suspected stroke.

“I arrived almost 40 minutes later and found my mum sat in the lounge, all slumped to the left,” said Miss Rock.

“She couldn’t speak and was quite clearly suffering a stroke.

“I couldn’t believe when I got there they had still not called an ambulance. I was angry. She had been sat there all that time waiting for urgent medical attention that she needed.”

Mrs Rock, who has a string of other illnesses, has now developed further speech difficulties and lost her ability to walk.

The LGO described the council’s apology as “unacceptable” and that it “falls way short of remedying the injustice to Mrs Rock and her daughter.”
‘Desperately concerned’

Its report said the neglect of Mrs Rock “jeopardised her health” and told the authority to pay £2,500 compensation.

It also recommended that council staff be given appropriate training to “understand the need to act quickly in seeking emergency medical attention” when residents suffer a stroke.

Neil Ellis, from the LGO, said: “This is a very serious case. There is no legitimate excuse we can find for why the emergency services were not called.

“It is not something you would expect to find in a care environment and there has to be further investigations to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”

Elaine Yardley, director of adult services at the city council, said the authority was “very concerned” and “desperately unhappy” at what had happened.

She said they had fully accepted the LGO’s recommendations and were investigating to prevent any further incidents.