Tag Archives: Ghassan Al-Jibouri

HOLMWOOD HOUSE: CARE QUALITY COMMISSION TOOTHLESS

holwod hosueThe CQC is supposedly the independent regulator for inspecting health and social care settings so that the vulnerable remain safe from harm and exploitation in care homes and the like.

They became famous in the wake of the WINTERBOURNE VIEW home scandal, where animals masquerading as human care workers routinely abused adults with learning difficulties.  The situation was highlighted by BBC’s PANORAMA using a hidden camera.  The CQC came later.

When Bristol City Council closed all their residential care homes for the elderly in 2013 due to cuts, they promised that the existing residents would be transferred to safe care settings.

“Don’t worry,” they said,” the CQC will INSPECT AND CLOSE any homes that do not reach tough standards.”

What a load of bollox. As the BRISTOLIAN’s investigation of Holmwood House has revealed, the home has failed every inspection for the last five years, killed a resident and is now subject to legal action but it’s still open for business!

The CQC web site says that there are currently 77 settings classed as ‘INADEQUATE’ and 316 ‘NEEDING IMPROVEMENT’.  Which is just funky unless it’s your nan lying all day in her own urine, hoping that somebody will turn her over to ease the bed sores.  Why don’t they shut these homes?

The answer is LACK OF PROVISION. Councils have been forced to shut all their homes. So if inspectors suggest closure, the money grabbing care home bosses  supported by council bosses  say, “OK. Fine. But where are you going to put the residents?”

Look at Holmwood House with over 100 residents, many placed there by Bristol City Council. The truth is that dodgy care home bosses have FREE REIN to rake in money by paying care workers a pittance in under staffed settings while the vulnerable suffer and in some cases die.

This comes after the elderly have paid their national insurance all their lives and, sometimes, have had to sell their homes to pay for their abuse.

And it will continue because nobody cares unless you start caring.

FORGED DRUG RECORDS CLAIMS AT ‘HORROR HOUSE’ NURSING HOME HOLMWOOD

HOLMWOOD HOUSEAs part of our ongoing investigation local private care home of horrors HOLMWOOD HOUSE, where we have reported the concerns of family members over several resident deaths and allegations of neglect, The BRISTOLIAN has taken delivery of a large bundle of medical documents. These relate to the management and distribution of controlled drugs there in 2013 – when the home was briefly managed by a State Registered Nurse (SRN), SIMONE SMITH.

We understand that the police have studied these documents and confirmed that a considerable number of them contain FORGED SIGNATURES. At present it is unclear who was responsible for the forgeries, as the police appear to have discontinued their inquiry.

Also in the bundle is evidence of a DRUG AUDIT ordered by then-manager Smith which was conducted by struck-off nurse ISLA MEEK, who was working at the home as a “consultant”.

There’s little doubt Meek did the work, as the audit was produced on the headed business paper of ‘Isla Meek Consulting’. Obviously, a struck-off nurse should not be involved in any way in the management of controlled drugs at a nursing home.

in a further extraordinary twist, Smith is now using these dodgy drug audits herself as evidence to get another former nurse from the home STRUCK OFF by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). A hearing is expected later this year.

Smith left Holmwood House in the Autumn of 2013 and is now employed by Four Seasons Healthcare as a manager at OAKTREE CARE HOME in Yate. Four Seasons Healthcare rejects any claims of wrongdoing regarding Smith, and told The BRISTOLIAN that Bristol City Council’s Safeguarding Team have described Smith as “a whistleblower”!

Although, as far as we can tell, the only whistleblowing Smith could have done would be in regards to her own management of controlled drugs.

Forged drug records? Bent audits? The Holmwood House affair gets a whole lot murkier…

PRESS RELEASE: HOLMWOOD HOUSE

Expert lawyers investigating the death of a woman who received treatment from a nurse at a Bristol care home who is being investigated over allegations of abuse have called for an inquest to be held into the pensioner’s death to investigate the care she was given.

Serious injury experts at law firm Irwin Mitchell’s Bristol office are representing Annette Whiting, the daughter of Kathleen Cole, who died in August last year after being under the care of Holmwood House Nursing Home in Westbury-On-Trym for five years.

Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have now written to HM Coroner for Avon, Maria Voisin, requesting an inquest is held into the 77-year-old’s death, as they believe the results of a number of internal investigations into standards at the home and Mrs Cole’s care require further inquiry.

Her cause of death was initially recorded as being from natural causes but a post-mortem carried out before she was cremated resulted in the cause of death being altered to pneumonia.

Lawyers have seen notes taken during an internal meeting after Mrs Cole’s death which revealed issues with nutrition and hydration, manual handling, skin care and management, administration of medication, failures to manage a pressure sore and a failure to diagnose pneumonia prior to her transfer to Westbury Nursing Home from Holmwood House.

A Freedom of Information request submitted by the BBC in January found there have been eight substantiated allegations of abuse or neglect at Holmwood House in the last two years.

Jonathan Peacock, Regional Managing Partner and specialist abuse lawyer at Irwin Mitchell’s Bristol office is representing Annette.

Jonathan Peacock says,

We have reviewed a number of investigations into the care Mrs Cole received and believe factors included inadequate training, qualifications, management and supervision need exploring further.

“We are calling on the Coroner on behalf of Annette to hold an inquest into Mrs Cole’s death as she would like answers about whether more could have been done to prevent her mother’s suffering and subsequent death.

“We also have questions about how many other patients may have been affected and we believe an inquest would assist in gaining answers about this.”

Holmwood House stopped admitting patients with nursing needs under what was described as a “voluntary” arrangement. It followed a risk assessment by the council and a suspension of all admissions from June until August last year.

Among Annette’s concerns are that her mother was given an enema which she believes was unnecessary and left her mother distressed. The nurse, Cicily Joseph, was found guilty of assault – a verdict later overturned on appeal.  She resigned from Holmwood after being suspended.

However, a council investigation upheld an allegation of abuse and Ms Joseph remains under investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Annette, 54, from Seamills, said: “My mum deserved to be treated with dignity and respect and I thought she was in the safest place possible at Holmwood House with people who were used to providing her specific care needs.

“I feel that I now owe it to my mum to get answers about her care and I believe an inquest is the only way to do this. I am also worried about other residents’ treatment and would like to know that everything possible is being done by the home to improve the failures identified by the CQC.”

Read more about Irwin Mitchell’s expertise relating to abuse and neglect claims

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOLMWOOD: ANOTHER POINTLESS INVESTIGATION EXPOSED!

HOLMWOODHOUSETHE BRISTOLIAN has been passed sensational information from a Freedom of Information request that reveals that there was a major, unpublicised investigation regarding the safeguarding of residents  at the ‘The House of Horrors’, HOLMWOOD HOUSE last year.

According to information contained in the response to the request, an investigation Web Exclusivetook place at the home in May 2013 and it involved Bristol City Council, the police, the NHS and the home itself.  The reason for the investigation is listed as “physical abuse and neglect through  medication error (x4)”, which suggests that, yet again, serious issues in the dispensing of medicines have arisen at the home and that other residents at the home have been abused.

The outcome of the investigation, as usual, was a fudge with the council concluding, even after their intervention, that “some areas show improvement seen (sic) but inconsistencies are now being addressed through a specialist support team.”

The report also tell us that Holmwood instituted a voluntary ban on all admissions between 3 June 2013 and 23 August 2013 while Bristol City Council were supposedly monitoring the home. This is the period in which AN ELDERLY WOMAN DIED twelve days after leaving their care, having inexplicably lost her swallowing reflex and one third of her body weight.

So it looks like a safeguarding  investigation took place at the home just prior to this death and seemingly no lessons were really learned and opportunities were missed. It makes you wonder what it would take for the owners and managers of the home to be prosecuted and for the dump to be shut down.

Will the authorities tolerate absolutely anything in their godforsaken private care homes?

BRISTOLIAN #4.9 NOW ON THE STREETS!

The BRISTOLIAN #4.9 - hitting the streets NOW!

The BRISTOLIAN #4.9 – hitting the streets NOW!

It’s been another busy month in Bristol, with no shortage of graft, payola or all-round incompetence to cover – but the latest paper (The BRISTOLIAN #4.9) is now on the streets, featuring…

» BRISTOL’S NEW HORROR HOME
Holmwood House care home is like something out of The Munsters. Except it’s really not funny.

» YOU’RE FIRED!
Skinner booted as the Curse of 100 Temple Street claims yet another management victim

» RED-FACED RED PANTS DOESN’T GET THE BIG PICTURE
Mayor ‘Now Fuck Off’ Ferguson loses his cool over The BRISTOLIAN in his Berchtesgarten

» AUDIT LATEST
Financial farrago at City Hall as fraud and non-compliance continues

» MARKET FARCES
They seek it here, they seek it there, they seek that damned elusive £165k everywhere…

» PRIVATE LAND, PRIVATE GAIN?
Why is a corporate property developer calling the shots at Wellington Hill Playing Fields?

» IS CITY OF BRISTOL COLLEGE BROKE?
City’s largest supplier of skills & training to youngsters on the brink

» JUNKET GEORGE UPDATE
Millionaire Mayor signs partnership deal with Chinese Communist Party bosses!

PLUS: BRISTOLIAN BITES!!!

Tantalising titbits including…

  • THINK OF THE CHILDREN!barney between Fergo’s true believers & Labour at charity bash
  • PRIMARY FAIL IndyRedpants election strategy off the rails already?
  • UNIFORMLY BADwhat’s going on at popular Totterdown school?
  • THIEVES IN THE TEMPLE£90 million budget cuts not affecting the consultancy gravy train
  • BEDROOM TAX LATEST – Council prepares to boot poor families onto street for Christmas
  • LEGAL NEWSpanicky BCC misrepresents own consultants’ findings on Mem impact
  • HOYT’S GOURMET JOY‘Assistant Mayor’ fills his face with food & reneges on ‘No Evictions’

…And all that for FREE!

See the Distribution page for your local stockist – and if there isn’t one near you, let us know!

CAN’T WAIT TO GET HOLD OF A PAPER COPY?

Then you can DOWNLOAD a PDF version here:

» The BRISTOLIAN #4.9 – December 2013

HOLMWOOD HOUSE ‘CARE’ SCANDAL: CENSORSHIP AND COVER-UP IN BRISTOL?

Web ExclusiveFollowing on from our exclusive story about Holmwood House care home, The BRISTOLIAN here reprints word-for-word a statement sent in to Bristol City Council by the son of a resident ENDED UP DEAD in circumstances that would make any reasonable person very concerned.

Its HEARTFELT MESSAGE, intended to be read out at today’s Cabinet meeting, seems to be something which neither Bristol’s Bedwetter-in-Chief, Mayor Red-Nappy himself, nor his middle management cronies, want you to hear.

That’s certainly what the various attempts by senior bureaucrats to prevent the statement’s author from presenting his statement or addressing the meeting look like to anybody outside of their cosy BCC bubble. They’ve spent the last day or so going REDACTION CRAZY, crossing out as much detail in the statement as possible with their big black felt pens, as if to minimise any possible comeback against council officers or policy. That’s on top of trying to strong-arm the author (whose father died in their care) into not mentioning the names of any people, places, companies or court cases – which are already a matter of public record.

“The statement’s defamatory!” they cry, as if they were high court judges instead of the cheap apologists for the abusers of the elderly that they actually are.

As usual the actions of these petty town hall bosses appear designed to protect the guilty and screw ordinary, innocent Bristolians unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of their outsourced ‘care’ or their cut-price ‘safeguarding’.

Anyway, anyone mentioned in this statement – as those at Shitty Hall know full well – is more than welcome to take action. We wait with interest…

Three years ago this coming January my father passed away under dubious circumstances whilst in the care of Holmwood House Nursing Home. Kenneth Albert Norman was placed in to the of care Holmwood House by the Adult Community Care team after suffering horrendous abuse and neglect at the hands of Mimosa Health Care. Another provider who were fully supported by Bristol City Council and who received millions of pounds from the city’s coffers to provide quality care and end of life facilities to the most vulnerable in society – the elderly.

The establishments’ run by Mimosa within the city were continuously investigated by the biggest toothless tiger on the planet. One that in most sensible thinking people’s minds should be disbanded and replaced with something that can bite. This organisation is the Care Quality Commission.

What action did Bristol City Council take when serious failings were found? Ummm they continued to give this provider millions until their demise. Through this stupidity and madness you helped this provider continue to abuse and neglect the most vulnerable in society and not once has an elected official or senior manager apologised to those that suffered or their families who are left with the permanent scars and nightmares created by the madness of this provider.

We now have a new provider of abuse and neglect on the block – Holmwood House Nursing Home, Westbury-On-Trym. When Kenneth Albert Norman passed away, I requested an inquest in to his death. During this process I made a request through the coroner’s office to obtain his medical records from Holmwood House. The coroner’s office were then informed by Holmwood House that “the gardener had burned/destroyed them in a bin in the back garden of the home.”

This was less than a year after his passing and it effectively scuppered any chance of the files being inspected by me or the coroner’s office before an inquest. After the inquest these records rose like a Phoenix from the ashes and re-manifested themselves. I along with other members of my family have a lasting vision etched on our brains of our father led out in a hospital bed at 01.00am dead and we will never have the answers as to why.

Three weeks ago I was approached by a lady called Mrs Annette Whiting seeking my assistance and help after her mother, Katherine Cole, died of pneumonia twelve days after leaving Holmwood House Nursing Home, 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 Katherine was receiving at Holmwood House during her last fifteen months there. The city council did a seventh safeguarding investigation following the woman’s death.

I have seen the safeguarding reports and the material is shocking. One report describes two potential assaults on Katherine by nurse Cicily Joseph, who was later charged with one count of common assault for performing an enema on Katherine 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. Although 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 and one member of staff witnessed this. Ms Joseph now works in another Bristol care home.

Meanwhile the ‘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 council’s final safeguarding investigation that on the morning that Katherine Cole 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 on arriving at another 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 – that have already  been heavily criticised by the CQC – seem to show the patient experienced no weight loss.

Her family are therefore left to believe their mother somehow lost a third of her body weight, her swallowing reflex and caught terminal pneumonia during a half hour ambulance journey to a new care home.

And to add insult to injury, Mrs Cole’s daughter, Annette Whiting, has requested her mother’s medical records from the home, only to be told that this will cost her £50 for copying. In the first instance, a charge of this magnitude is simply not legal and seems designed to prevent Mrs Whiting from accessing these records. Secondly, where’s the basic humanity from this home and its Bristol City Council backers? How can you charge recently bereaved relatives like this?

Does anyone here remember the No Secrets No Hiding Place In Bristol Policy? Has anyone considered renaming that policy ‘Plenty of Secrets Plenty of Hiding Place in Bristol as We Don’t Believe In Transparency’?

I say this to our esteemed Mayor before jetting of round the world on jolly boys outings. Do the job you were elected to do and get the big house on the green in order. I have no doubt that when this story becomes public knowledge and hits the civil courts you will have plenty of opportunity for press coverage and comments about our great city and its failure to protect the most vulnerable.

Three years may seem like a long time but I feel sure from the press I read Mr Ferguson that it is going to be a case of Sia Nara Mr Ferguson in three years time.

Stephen Norman.

You can watch the action live on the council’s website here from 6pm.

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOLMWOOD: BRISTOL’S NEW HOUSE OF HORRORS

Microsoft Word - NO SECRETS IN BRISTOL 2010.docHolmwood 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.