‘Manual Handling’ Fatality – Two Staff in Court

Wednesday, 29th October 2014

Two care workers have recently appeared in court accused of ‘wilfully neglecting’ 85-year-old nursing home resident, Ms Norah Boyle.

Benter Ouma, 31, of Edgbaston, and Sabrina Hewitt, 39, of Handsworth, are alleged to have failed to seek medical help for Norah Boyle.

Birmingham Magistrates' Court heard the women are accused of failing to use proper manual handling procedures, resulting in a fall, whilst hoisting Mrs Boyle, a resident of The Green Nursing Home, Kings Norton, into bed on 5 September 2013. Mrs Boyle subsequently died of a head injury.

In addition, both carers are accused of providing false information, thus delaying appropriate medical treatment.

Ms Ouma and Ms Hewitt, who no longer work at the home on Wharf Road, were bailed and are due to appear at Birmingham Crown Court for the resumption of the hearing on 16 January 2015.

In a separate case, two nurses have been struck off by the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) after care they provided led to ‘avoidable harm to vulnerable patients’ at a nursing home in Abertillery, South Wales.

The pair, Ms Susan Reynolds and Ms Heather Hayward, formerly respectively the manager and deputy manager of the Grosvenor Nursing Home (which has been under new ownership since2001) appeared before a disciplinary panel in Cardiff. The hearing heard evidence of ‘shocking failings’ and were presented with photographs the panel’s chair-person described as ‘horrific.’

The panel found evidence of a ‘catalogue of wholesale failures towards extremely vulnerable patients’ over a period of five years from 2002. The disciplinary panel concluded that the fitness to practise of both Ms Reynolds and Ms Hayward was impaired and that, as a result, they should be struck off the nursing register. Over the period in question it was found that they had failed to implement proper care plans, failed to ensure one patient received sufficient nutrition, and failed to ensure pressure wounds were properly treated.

After the hearing, the daughter of one patient, who died in 2007, commented: ‘From 2006 until now all I've hoped for is that they'll never, ever make people suffer like my mother suffered, like our family suffered and my father suffered, they'll never be able to do that to a vulnerable person." Adding that her mother "didn't have very much care at all", and daughter went on to say that her family had been unaware of the pressure sore her mother had suffered until she had been admitted to hospital. ‘The consultant reported it was the worst pressure sore he'd ever seen.’

Under Operation Jasmine, Gwent police had investigated alleged abuse at several care homes in south Wales. The investigation cost £11m and identified 100 potential victims. Last year the Welsh government ordered an independent review into what lessons could be learnt.