A second resident of a Brighton care home found to have poor infection control died as a result of an E Coli outbreak there, a report has revealed.
The unnamed woman was living at Maycroft Manor in Carden Avenue, Patcham, when a number of people fell ill with diarrhoea in summer 2016.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that the first of these to fall ill, an elderly woman resident, had later died in hospital of E Coli, as part of an ombudsman’s report into her son’s complaint over how the outbreak was handled.
Now, another ombudsman’s report has revealed a second elderly woman died weeks later.
The first woman, referred in the reports as Mr B’s mother, became ill on June 19 and later died on July 3.
The second, referred to as Miss C’s grandmother, became ill with diarrhoea on July 2. This was followed by vomiting and bloody stools the following day, and that evening she was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with E Coli.
A month later, on August 5, she passed away.
Maycroft Manor was one of a number of homes run by Hallmark Care Homes hit by E Coli outbreaks, which were eventually blamed on unwashed salad leaves. These were removed from the menu on 5 July, two days after Miss C’s grandmother became ill.
Public Health England investigated, and although its subsequent report on Maycroft Manor was not made available to the public, the ombudsman said it found infection control was not good enough and a change of management had led to late reporting of the outbreak.
Hallmark has since implemented several changes as a result of its findings.
Last spring, Miss C sued Hallmark in a case which was settled out of court for £6,000.
The ombudsman’s report into Miss C’s complaint, published last month, said Miss C had been caused injustice, but as it was not clear whether her grandmother was infected as a result of the salad leaves or subsequent poor infection control, this was confined to the frustration she experienced in pursuing her complaint. The ombudsman ordered Hallmark to apologise pay her £500 compensation.
The report said: “Miss C says there was another male carer that worked on her grandmother’s community who went off sick early in the outbreak. Miss C says that male carer was known to have poor hand hygiene.
“I accept person-to-person contact was one possible way Miss C’s grandmother contracted E coli. However, the fact remains there is another possible source of Miss C’s grandmother’s E coli and that is contact with salad leaves either on the side of a plate or pureed into her food.
“As I have made clear, it is not the ombudsman’s role to determine the cause of Miss C’s grandmother’s E coli … Given there are two possibilities for the cause of the infection and both of those possibilities are plausible I cannot reach a safe conclusion about whether inadequate infection control within the home led to Miss C’s grandmother becoming infected.
“It is unlikely, in my view, Miss C will get further clarification about how her grandmother contracted E coli. That means Miss C is left not knowing whether poor infection control procedures, identified by Public Health England, caused her grandmother to contract E coli.
“I therefore consider Miss C’s injustice is limited to her frustration and the time and trouble she has had to go to pursuing her complaint. The Care Provider has agreed to apologise and pay Miss C £500.”
A spokesperson from Hallmark Care Homes said: “Our deepest sympathies and apologies go to the resident’s family for the very sad events that took place in August 2016.
“We were devastated by the regional outbreak attributed to salad leaves. We have worked closely with all relevant stakeholders and authorities, including Public Health England and Brighton and Hove’s City Council environmental health team to fully understand what happened.
“We took immediate action and reviewed our infection prevention and control policies and we now have comprehensive measures in place to protect residents and team members.
“We take concerns raised by family members very seriously and have engaged fully with the residents family during this process.”
