Whar privatised healthcare is all about
Kingsmead Lodge ... Two years on and it's the same old problems and the same old solutions ...
Today the Post reported that Kingsmead Lodge Nursing Home in Shire, run by private healthcare providers, Mimosa, has been given seven days to take action to improve standards of care by the Care Quality Commission.

The problems at the home - where Bristol City Council places vulnerable elderly people - include:

- residents were not experiencing safe and appropriate care,

- staff did not have an understanding of the complex needs of residents in their care,

- their needs were not fully assessed on admission,

- not enough information for staff about some of the medicines administered,

- doubts over whether some residents had not been given their medicines correctly,

- when staff were recruited to work with vulnerable adults, the company did not take into account previous employers' references,

- the competence of staff was not checked.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Firm-warned-poor-ca....html

This may ring a bell with some people. Here's part of a statement made by a member of the public to the BRISTOL HEALTH SCRUTINY COMMISSION in February 2009:

"Now five former staff from the home have come forward and made sworn statements regarding what’s been going on at this home. The allegations include:

Abuse of residents
A culture of bullying and harassment
A lack of support to staff from management
Abuses of Health & Safety guidelines
Basic healthcare policy and practice ignored
Inadequate reporting procedures
A lack of equipment
And “a regime run by bullying and fear where you would suffer repercussions if you spoke out or reported any incidents.”

I do not have time to read the statements in their entirety but I urge members to take the time to do so. They are included in this statement.

Allegations you’ll find in the statements include:

“I witnessed a 70 yr old resident thrown against a wall”;

“I have witnessed the removal of residents buzzers at night”;

“I have seen the contents of sedative capsules mixed into food”;

” I was told to hoist residents on my own”;

“Staff were working twelve hour shifts sometimes with no break”.

You will also find horrifying incidents such as this:

“A resident was found in bed with a cup of tea which had been spilt. The resident was obviously scolded

The RGN on duty was more concerned with what her family were going to say than carrying out emergency first aid to cool the scold.

So it was approximately one and a half hours – and after myself and another care assistant keeping on at her – that she carried out first aid.

Eventually cold compresses were applied and a Doctor called.

I was also asked to take responsibility for this incident by the RGN."

http://www.bristol.gov.uk/item/committeecontent/?ref=xa...te=00

At this stage the member of the public was physically removed from the meeting on the orders of the city's chief solicitor, Stephen McNamara.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Fresh-allegations-B....html

The Post goes on to say today that "Ian Biggs, CQC regional director, said his staff would work with the city council, the Continuing Healthcare Team and Bristol Primary Care Trust to monitor Kingsmead Lodge closely."

Exactly what we were told in February 2009.

It's now plainly apparent that Bristol City Council and their private healthcare provider are openly engaged in the long term institutional abuse of the elderly in residential homes in Bristol and covering it up. When will it end?