Why our elderly deserve so much better than this
02 April 2008
Edinburgh Evening News
By CHARLOTTE BAILEY
Evening News goes undercover at Ashley Court Nursing Home to lift the lid on a litany of failings in hygiene and staffing.
I SPENT a week working five gruelling 13-hour shifts as a care assistant at Ashley Court Nursing Home in Morningside.
The home is regarded within the industry as one of the region's better care homes and specialises in providing extra care for people with dementia. And certainly my investigation did not uncover any abuse of elderly residents or failings which might put them in immediate danger.
But I did witness a series of shortcomings at the home in Craighouse Terrace which paint a stark picture of life in a nursing home and the standard of care which any one of us might expect to experience. And the results have prompted a strong reaction, being described as "most disturbing" by Margo MacDonald MSP, and condemned by the charity Age Concern Scotland as a "threat to the health and wellbeing of residents and staff which cannot be excused".
The investigation found a series of apparent failings at Ashley Court relating to staffing, hygiene and recruitment. These include:
• As few as two staff caring for 22 residents on one floor overnight.
• I was left alone with apparent responsibility for 22 residents on my second shift while other carers took a ten-minute a break.
• Apparent failure to carry out a criminal record check.
• No medical gloves seemed to be available for changing and washing residents for almost two entire shifts.
• Hygiene procedures ignored when dealing with resident with MRSA.
• Residents complaining of boredom and carers of under-staffing.
The Randolph Hill Group, which owns Ashley Court, denied there were any shortcomings in the care it provided while I worked there last month.
Abridged
SOURCE: edinburghnews
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