£1.6m fine for care home after guest, 91, found frozen to death
CARE home bosses were yesterday fined £1.6million after a frail dementia sufferer froze to death in her bedroom.
Annie Barritt, 91, was so cold that nurses at the Oaklands home, near York, could not measure her body temperature on a standard thermometer.
It was later found to be 25.3C (77.5F), 10 degrees below the hypothermia threshold, York Crown Court heard.
Yet staff failed to realise that Mrs Barritt was seriously ill, assuming she was asleep and gave her no food or drink all day. She was taken to hospital but died hours later.
Leeds-based Maria Mallaband Care Group was yesterday fined after admitting a catalogue of health and safety errors that led to the pensioner’s death in November 2012.
Passing sentence, Judge Paul Batty, QC, said that, when admitted to hospital, she had a “body temperature barely compatible with human life”.
Faulty
He said: “This case did not involve one isolated and tragic act.
“The death of this much-loved lady was an accident waiting to happen.”
There was no monitoring of the temperature in the rooms or monitoring or servicing of radiators.
Instead, repairs had been carried out by the handyman, who was not a qualified heating engineer and had been allowed to “check his own homework”.
The heating in Mrs Barritt’s room turned itself off because of a faulty radiator valve, the court heard.
After the tragedy the firm, which has a turnover of £50million a year, installed thermometers in all its rooms.
It now trades at a loss but the judge noted its assets and “remunerations paid to directors” in imposing the fine.
He added: “The failures were a significant death.
“When David Barritt and his wife visited his mother he noticed his mother’s hands were very cold.
“He checked the radiator. It felt cold. It was turned fully on.
“Perhaps understandably, he assumed the radiator was on a timer and would come on later.”
After the hearing Mr Barritt said: “It is hard to believe that an elderly lady with dementia could be treated in such an appalling way in a care home that claimed to specialise in the care of such vulnerable people.
“No one should be left alone, cold and without food and water to eventually die while being cared for by socalled professionals.”
In a statement the Maria Mallaband Care Group said: “We would like to express again our deepest sympathies to the family. They trusted us to look after their loved one and we failed, and for this we are very sorry.” cause of Mrs Barritt’s