Holmwood House care home is like something out of The Munsters. Except it’s really not funny.
The spotlight is firmly on private care home HOLMWOOD HOUSE in Westbury-on-Trym after an elderly woman died twelve days after leaving their care, having inexplicably lost her swallowing reflex and one third of her body weight.
She died despite SIX safeguarding investigations by Bristol City Council – who placed the woman in the home – into the care the woman was receiving at Holmwood House during her last fifteen months there. The City Council began a seventh such investigation following the woman’s death.
The BRISTOLIAN has seen the safeguarding reports and the material is shocking. One report describes two potential assaults on the woman by nurse CICILY JOSEPH, who was later charged with one count of common assault for performing an enema on the woman without proper permissions. Ms Joseph escaped a conviction for this on appeal.
A second potential assault charge for performing a ‘manual evacuation’, a considerably more serious and degrading assault, never came to court – though seven staff have stated that Ms Joseph had clearly told them that she performed “a manual” on the woman. Staff say Ms Joseph also told them that she had performed the procedure on a male resident with learning difficulties. One member of staff witnessed this. Ms Joseph now works in another Bristol care home.
In a further shocking revelation, we can also confirm that a ‘consultant’ employed by Holmwood House who worked directly with the council on many of their safeguarding investigations at the home was former nurse, ISLA MEEK. Ms Meek was STRUCK OFF by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 2012 after failing to report six deaths and keep proper drug records at a home in Whitchurch.
Why both the City Council and Holmwood House owner GHASSAN AL-JIBOURI consider Ms Meek a suitable person to carry out investigations in to the safety of adults in care homes is unclear.
It also appears that Ms Meek was directly involved in patient care at the home too. She claimed to the final safeguarding investigation that on the morning the woman was moved from Holmwood, she was sat up in bed eating porridge. An account that is disputed by legitimate medical practitioners who say the woman had no swallowing reflex at all on arriving at her new care home a few hours later.
Similarly, Ms Meek and Holmwood can provide no explanation as to how the woman lost such a large amount of weight. What there is of Holmwood’s slapdash medical records – which have been heavily criticised by the CQC – seem to show the patient experienced no weight loss.
Her family are therefore being led to believe that their mother somehow lost one-third of her body weight, her swallowing reflex and caught terminal pneumonia during a half-hour ambulance journey to a new care home.
This latest scandal comes just three years after another family with a deceased relative at the home was told that his medical records had all been burned by the gardener. Although, MIRACULOUSLY THE RECORDS REAPPEARED – after the coroner’s inquest was completed!
Family of the home’s latest victim are consulting lawyers with a view to taking action for negligence against the home, the city council and the home’s GP Dr Norman Douglas.
Good news then. This dump needs closing down immediately and the guilty and incompetent need to be identified and punished.
What crap this is a load of rubbish go find some real news !!!
You don’t consider this to be “real news”?
How curious!
Anyway, thanks for commenting, xxxxxxx, if you don’t mind being called by your first name.
A truly horrendous story clearly xxxxxxx may need the assistance of a frontal lobotomy to understand what news is. Crap is something you put down a toilet or in a rubbish bin someone should flush these evil people down one maybe xxxxxxx could join them
Thanks for commenting, Amy. It’s a distressing story – and sadly only the latest in a long line of similar ones relating to privatised residential care in Bristol.
There are many decent people toiling away thanklessly in care work – but unfortunately when the profit motive enters the equation, very often the efforts of these committed staff members are diluted by cost-cutting bosses.
And the people who suffer the most are invariably the most vulnerable – the residents themselves.
I would like to thank the Bristolian for having the courage to print such a horrific story.
The Mayor stopped the statement half way through by this action alone he clearly wants to protect the providers of abuse & neglect in Bristol and is not concerned that a major scandal is about to hit Bristol City Council. I guess it doesn’t suit the George Fergusson Show because that is what it seems to be. Well Mr Fergusson you aren’t Boris and you got about as much charm and charisma to the citizens of Bristol as a Cockroach time to pack your bags and FRO back to your penthouse. I think these words echo the sentiments of the under privileged and disadvantaged in Bristol. I would like to thank Councillor Janke for approaching both myself and Mrs Whiting before the meeting had even commenced stating she would like to meet with us. Clearly Councillor Janke seemed most perturbed and upset by the revelations and the photographs we handed to her. There were a number of Labour & Tory councillors within the council chamber but only councillor Janke had the decency to approach us I feel sure come May people can judge these people at the Ballot Box. I hope xxxxxxx never has to experience what the abused suffer and I would be more than willing to meet this person and show them the facts and photographs
Cheers Steve, and we hope that both you and Mrs Whiting get meaningful answers from the Council about the deaths of your parents.
Let’s make sure no one else in Bristol ever has to suffer this sort of pain, indignity or uncertainty again.
I don’t remember this appearing in the Bristol Post which is little more than a house magazine for the Bristol ruling class,including Fergusconi and his putrid mates. Private nursing homes have always been a racket. I remember visiting one when I was a trainee social worker in 1987. It was in Clevedon. We were given the red-carpet treatment by the owner who was anxious to make a good impression, though I was not given the chance to talk to any of the inmates-sorry,residents. Whilst we sipped our tea-which was very nice-the owner gave us her spiel which was all about how wonderful,caring and compassionate her establishment was. I listened to it with half-an-ear, but I kept hearing the word ‘wastage’. When she had run out of breath,I asked her whether the word meant what I thought it did. After some prevarication, she admitted that it did. Wasn’t that nice? Keep up the good work,Bristolian.
Thanks Boris.
The Post did actually report on Holmwood House in 2012, in a story entitled ‘Nursing home “has improved since warnings”’. This related to the CQC following up on its earlier assessment of Holmwood House (visited in May 2012; report issued July 2012) which had found the business failing in key areas of “compliance”.
Whilst a further CQC visit in December 2012 showed that Holmwood House met the formal standard in five out of five areas, by July 2013 a routine inspection showed that the facility was failing in seven out of eight areas!
To put the above in context, the figures from the government and from other agencies on the elderly show that:
– 500,000 elderly people are hospitalised each year due to neglect and abuse
– at least 200 a year die of starvation in care homes, a figure which is probably a gross underestimate
– 180,000 are reduced to a semi-comatose state by the inappropriate use of anti-psychotic medication to treat dementia, a fact known now for 4 years and still no action. This excess drug treatment also kills 1,500 a year
– in the order of 20,000 a year are killed by sepsis from bed sores, poor hygiene (c. difficile) , both wholly avoidable
Given that the numbers of elderly are increasing and the funding for their care is decreasing, this is only going to get worse. The fact that our politicians are all ignoring it is one of the biggest scandals of our times.
just dont get old and poor in this country.
The Fergusson Show would rather promote and support establishments like this he has sent a loud and clear message to this home please feel free to continue and we will supply you the victims and pay you huge sums of money from the public purse.
This message was sent when you and the morons within democratic services attempted censoring my public form speech. When I made it loud and clear to democratic services over a 24 hr period that I would not be reading from a redacted statement you then stopped the speech half way through. Well Mr Fergusson like every shit show it soon gets removed.
One thing I can guarantee you Mr Fergusson is there is plenty more to be released regarding this home please tune in Mr Fergusson or feel free to get your overpaid enforcer Ms Sears to contact me for updates, after all I did have the decency to tell her some three weeks ago that this scandal was coming.
Whilst your Merchant Venture friends at the evening post have so far avoided the subject I feel sure when the revelations continue they will soon be running like a greyhound to catch the hare
I fully endorse the statements given by Boris and Harry.
A lot of the elderly in these horrific homes are the very same people who fought to rid the world of Tyranny and we as individuals now enjoy the freedom that we enjoy because of their sacrifice. Adolf Hitler had a similar approach to the most vulnerable in society those that committed the horrific crimes during 1939-1945 were eventually tried at Nuremburg although many more escaped justice. We now have stories of horrific abuse & neglect appearing on our TV screens on a regular bases to the most vulnerable in our society.
The perpetrators in this particular case are being protected by the very people that should be bringing them to justice but more horrendous is the fact when a bed becomes vacant they place another potential victim in to that bed at an average cost of £600.00 per week to the tax payers of Bristol.
The flippant quote made by Mr George Fergusson Mayor of Bristol during my attempt to read my statement was “Was We Have More Important Things On The Agenda “ once again not a story line that is good for the George Fergusson Show. If this is what having an elected mayor in Bristol means we can expect, then those who voted for such an office have inadvertently truly unleashed an uncontrollable megalomaniac
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