I’m not shocked by abuse

Dear editor

I was very saddened to read about the behaviour of a nurse towards residents at Rowantree/ Rodgerpark Care Home in Rutherglen, but I was not surprised.

The problem here lies in the lack of action taken by the Care Commission in relation to this home in the past and the failure of South Lanarkshire Council social work department who, in my case, simply shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do.

There is plenty they can do. Stop sending people there, deprive them of their income and they will soon mend their ways.

The Care Commission should have closed them, and others like them, many years ago.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council is totally wrong and this person should have been struck off.

If this had been a baby, there would have been uproar but many very old and ill people are just as dependent and vulnerable as children.

Personally, I believe that if there was more care available at home and the carer’s allowance was an amount that people could live on, most folk would choose to look after their own relatives, as I did.

My late mother, whom I looked after for 20 years, was only in Rodgerpark because I had been seriously ill and SLC was unable to provide any help to me so that I could keep her with me at home.

I have to live the rest of my life with the knowledge of what happened in there and meanwhile BUPA continues to make huge profits from this, their biggest home in the UK.

As I said, shocked, saddened but not surprised. Dorothy Connor Rutherglen