The Steve Norman “come on and take me to court then” story appears in today’s Evening Cancer.
A couple of passages are worth further analysis:
Police, social services and the watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CSCI) investigated earlier this year after five former care workers at Kingsmead Lodge gave statements on practices that they claimed to have seen at the care home.
Interesting use of the past tense – “investigated’ here. Because if the police have “investigated” and the case is now closed, they haven’t informed any of the original complainants about this.
Whether this is a case of good old-fashioned police incompetence or whether the investigation is, in fact, still ongoing is something that will now be looked at.
The claims that social services have “investigated” are equally confusing. No complainants to Bristol City Council have been informed of the outcome of this “investigation” for starters.
Neither has Bristol City Council published any terms of reference for this “investigation” nor have any complainants been interviewed in the course of this “investigation” and democratic oversight of this “investigation” through either scrutiny commissions or the relevant Executive Member is nowhere to be seen.
In fact it’s hard to locate even one characteristic normally associated with an “investigation” into this affair by Bristol social services.
Then there’s the so-called CSCI “investigation”. Now, this really is bollocks. CSCI are a regulator – with a role similar to OFSTED’s in education. They set national standards and inspect care homes on the basis of those standards. They don’t carry out investigations into individual allegations of abuse in care homes. It’s not their job.
Meanwhile on the substance of Norman’s court challenge the council are simply reduced to waffle:
“Bristol, with other local authorities, follows national ‘Fairer Charging’ guidance in charging for all social services provided. Under the guidelines, all residents in care homes are required to make a financial contribution to the cost of their care, depending on their income. This is subject to a means test to determine what a person can afford to pay.”
So what? Who gives a toss what shitty rules you’re following? The question is: are you going to enforce these rules in court in order that Steve Norman can invite the complainants to give evidence and state the nature of their grievances?
It would certainly be interesting to see if the general public, having heard their complaints, will be as complacent as the authorities seem to be about them.
I believe that Bristol City Council should issue court proceedings for recovery of this outstanding money. At this moment in time it is public money that has been paid to one of their buddies in the private sector to appease them – Mimosa Healthcare, whose slogan is ‘Where People Matter’.
Mimosa Healthcare, ‘Where People Matter’, had a contract to provide both my father and late mother with a high standard of care. Under the terms and conditions of this agreement they have failed to do so.
They decided – for reasons that they have never disclosed – to pack my father off to hospital in the back of an ambulance on his own at midnight in excruciating pain and scared and frightened with no family member present.
The family had no knowledge that he was even ill, yet he had been in severe pain since 7.00 pm that evening. Someone then decided it might be a good idea to inform my father’s next of kin.
But instead of ringing my sister’s landline they decided it would be better to leave a message on her mobile phone voicemail. It was only by chance that my sister heard her mobile phone beeping as she was in bed asleep.
These are the facts of how we became aware that our 84 year old father had been rushed to the BRI. We thank god that he didn’t pass away in that ambulance and that he has now made a full recovery. When we arrived at the BRI at 01.00 am we found our father in a severely distressed state and crying with pain.
First thing monday morning I made a complaint to Social Service’s regarding the treatment my father had received from their provider with the slogan ‘Where People Matter’.
That complaint has never been addressed and neither have we been notified of the findings of any investigations. What we do know is that Bristol City Council settled all outstanding bills with their buddies – Mimosa Healthcare and let’s not forget the slogan ‘Where People Matter’ – and ask us to pay for the privilege of the above fiasco.
Secondly, at February’s cabinet meeting, I asked written questions of the council leader regarding Mimosa Healthcare, ‘Where People Matter’.
The council leader in her written reply confirmed that Social Services had stopped placing the elderly in to another nursing home run by Mimosa Healthcare.
This was the home that the council leader, along with Councillor Knott, was photographed outside and appeared in the Evening Post with the view that the people inside they ‘seem contented’ or words to that effect.
Mimosa Healthcare are not fit to provide nursing care in this city and maybe they should look at revising their slogan to ‘PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT BEFORE CARE’
The plain and simple truth is that Bristol City Council embraces this provider because it has in the region of 600+ nursing beds in this city and it’s a case of the tail wagging the dog.
Thirdly, as stated, I believe it right that Bristol City Council should pursue this outstanding bill through the courts and I welcome the opportunity to defend my sister in this action as I firmly believe that there is just cause within English Law to defend such an action and I know that I have evidence to support such a defence.
So I would ask all the good citizens and council taxpayers of Bristol to email Stephen Mcnamara (stephen.mcnamara@bristol.gov.uk) and insist that he attempts the recovery of this public money.
I have one simple statement to Mr Mcnamara and Social Services:
DON’T DELAY SERVE YOUR PAPERS TODAY
or please refrain from sending threatening and malicious letters to my family.
How can we allow such treatment of our elderly by organisations who clearly only care about profit and not about care.My heart goes out to Mr Norman and the way his father was treated,There must be care staff who are worried about poor standards of care but who are too afraid to speak out for fear of reprisals.It would be interesting to see some of them adding to the blog !
I am sure that the above mentioned care provider could absorb the cost of this small amount of money as it is such a trivial amount to such a large company.Perhaps they could put off replacing their Bentley’s and Mercedes a little while longer and put back some of their vast profits in caring for their residents instead of lining their pockets with inflated expense accounts and fine wines?