Carers ‘left my sister living among rotting food and rats’
SOCIAL services have been criticised after a woman with Alzheimer’s was left living among rats, rotting food, mouldy clothes and bags of rubbish.
Beryl Barker, 74, was horrified to discover her sister Tricia Crowther, 76, had been “surrounded by filth”.
The widow was under the care of social services and care agency Creative Support, which was contracted to visit the house in Shipley, West Yorkshire, three times a day.
Now Mrs Barker, a retired nurse, is demanding that Bradford City Council carries out a case review.
Mrs Barker visited the house after being told by a neighbour her sister was in hospital after a fall.
She said: “What I saw made me feel sick. The stench when you walked in was unbelievable. Her kitchen had rats running around and there were clothes everywhere.
“That fall saved her life, otherwise she’d have been left to fade away in her own filth.”
Mark Rounding, chief executive of Age UK Bradford & District, said: “It is truly shocking to see the environment she was left to live in.
“No person, let alone someone vulnerable with dementia, should be left by any service provider, voluntary or statutory, to live in these conditions.”
Mrs Crowther is now living in Lynfield Mount Hospital in Bradford.
Bradford City Council yesterday declined to comment on the case.