EDP: ‘Fobbed off’: Family of grandmother attacked in care home hits out at mental health trust

Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports:

The son of a dementia patient who died after she was attacked in a care home says he feels “fobbed off” by a promised investigation into her death.

The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) told the family of Doreen Livermore in January that it was launching three investigations after the death of the 88-year old in King’s Lynn in 2018.

Mrs Livermore died six weeks after being knocked to the floor by a fellow resident, who has dementia, at Amberley Hall in King’s Lynn.

The trust said one investigation was into its culture and a second into why it closed the case of the dangerous resident who had repeatedly attacked Mrs Livermore.

A third investigation is into the NSFT’s communications manager, Mark Prentice, who sent an email bragging the NSFT had got away with media scrutiny, because Monty Python star Terry Jones died the day a report into Mrs Livermore’s death was released.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

“We will keep you informed of progress,” NSFT’s HR advisor wrote to Mrs Livermore’s son Roy in January.

But a month later he has not heard a thing.

Is the non-respondent the highly-paid HR consultant to the Board, Mark Gammage? How many hundred of pounds per day is he trousering from NHS coffers?

Absolutely standard non-performance by the NSFT bureaucracy.

We have heard this from people so many times.

Promises, promises.

Then nothing.

“It looks like a case of fobbing people off until the heat has died down,” he said.

Couldn’t agree more, sadly.

What a way to treat the bereaved who have lost a loved one to homicide.

The NSFT way.

Of course, NSFT will continue to evade.

Because, as a member of NSFT’s front line staff recently wrote to us, the truth to which the spin doctors and Board won’t admit is unpalatable:

Simple reason for these elderly deaths. Not enough elderly beds, so the care homes are looking after severely disturbed and confused elderly people with dementia, who should be in hospital but can’t get a bed.

Unfair on those people, and those living alongside them.

Click on the image below to read the story in full.

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