A man whose elderly mother died as a result of an E Coli outbreak at a Brighton nursing home has had his complaint about how her illness was dealt with upheld.
Maycroft Manor in Carden Avenue, Patcham, was one of a number of homes run by Hallmark Care Homes where residents and staff were infected with E Coli in June 2016. The nationwide outbreaks were eventually blamed on unwashed salad leaves.
At the time, Public Health England said two residents and one staff member were infected. An ombudsman report into the son’s complaint published yesterday reveals that his mother, who was the first person in the home to be affected, later died in hospital.
As well as the three who tested positive for E Coli, a further nine had loose bowels, five bloody diarrhoea.
The son, referred to in the report as Mr B, complained that care home staff failed to follow the advice of a GP on 20 June who told them to call back if his mother’s loose bowels continued, and to take a stool sample.
The ombudsman agreed that staff had not called the GP back when her diarrhoea continued, which delayed her admission to hospital by several hours.
However, the hospital initially made a diagnosis of diverticulitis, only concluding she was infected with E Coli several days later.
According to care home records, the mother did not produce any more stools after the GP’s advice until the following afternoon, when a paramedic who was attending a different patient at Maycroft told them to admit her.
Six days later, the home finally informed Public Health England (PHE) that 10 residents and two staff members had diarrhoea.
PHE called the hospital, which told them two patients, including Mr B’s mother, had tested positive for E Coli. The home was then advised to close the home to new admissions and transfers.
It reopened fully after a CQC inspection on 26 July gave it a full bill of health. Hallmark Homes has since made 20 changes to how its care homes operate as a result of lessons learnt.
Mr B made two complaints to the care home in 2016, and in response Hallmark agreed to waive the four week notice period and provide another four weeks credit, refunding him a total of £8,760.
The following year, the PHE published a report which said suboptimal infection prevention and control within Maycroft was a concern and a there had been a delay in reporting the outbreak due to a change in management of the home, lack of communication and lack of awareness of of what constituted an outbreak.
Mr B complained once more, but the care home had not seen this PHE report (which was different to a publicly available one) and told him he had exhausted their complaints procedure.
In their report, the ombudsman said: “I have found fault in that the care provider failed to follow the advice of the GP on 20 June 2016, delayed reporting the outbreak, had inadequate infection control procedures in place and failed to deal with Mr B’s August 2017 complaint.
“I cannot speculate about whether but for fault the outcome for Mr B’s mother would have been different. Nor can I speculate about what led Mr B’s mother to contract E coli as that is not the Ombudsman’s role.
