Newton House care home inquiry launched

Staff at Newton House care home are said to have screamed at an elderly lady to get back into her room, left her “rolling in bed in agony” with a leg ulcer and allowed her to go unwashed for almost two weeks.

According to the woman’s daughter-in-law, a tablet computer used by the family to contact her by video link was also removed because the managers claimed it was a breach of staff privacy.

Our sister title The Herald revealed earlier this month that the Newton Mearns care home was under new management after racking up five section 62 notices in 16 months, which carry a threat of closure if the required improvements are not made.

Inspectors were not confident that residents were being looked after by “skilled, knowledgeable staff who had their best interests at heart”.

Hamond Care 1 Ltd, which operates the home, has been given until January 31 to make improvements or face having its registration cancelled.

The elderly woman’s daughter-in-law says her official complaint was prompted by a series of incidents which left her concerned about the welfare of her mother-in-law, whom she said has “mild dementia”.

She said a tablet computer installed in her room when visits were stopped due to Covid restrictions was her primary means of communication with relatives who live outwith Scotland.

She said: “Things were noticed. We saw her in clothes worn for days on end and sometimes the clothes she had on were not her own. 

“She was unkempt looking and scratching her skin. 

“When she was allowed out she would appear in other people’s clothes. The clothes would often be dirty and stained. She has plenty of clothes which could have been rotated.”

She claimed staff told another relative that she hadn’t been washed for 12 days “because she is dressed before we have a chance to shower her.”

She said the tablet computer was removed but re-instated after the family complained but after this was not always available which left the elderly woman confused and distressed.

She said her mother-in-law contracted Covid on January 6, and says she witnessed another concerning incident while she was on a video call.

She said: “She was cold and wanted a cup of tea and left the room [against my advice] and came back five minutes later saying she had been told to go back to her room.

“An hour later she left the room desperate for a drink - bearing in mind she has Covid,  is 90 and had been left on her own.

“She didn’t make it too far out of the room when she was screamed at in an angry voice, ‘Get back in your room, get back in your room’.

“There was no justification for this verbal assault on a vulnerable person.”

She said that during another video call last Sunday at 2pm her mother-in-law was observed “rolling in agony on the bed” due to a leg ulcer that had deteriorated since Christmas.

She said: “If her standard of care is this bad then we can only assume it is the same for the rest of the residents.”

A spokesman for Halmond Care 1 Ltd, which operates Newton House, said the home would investigate the allegations.

Care homes are issued with section 62 notices where there is a serious breach of regulations or conditions of registration that is leading to “poor outcomes for service users”. 

A spokeswoman for the Care Inspectorate said: “A concern has been raised with us about this service and we are currently considering all information given to us.  

“If we uphold a complaint we publish the outcome on our website.  

“We continue to monitor this service closely to support improvement and have clearly outlined the changes we need to see in an Improvement Notice.  

“The safety and wellbeing of residents is always our priority, and we work with providers to drive and support improvement where possible.”