Daughter says care home’s staffing led to mum’s neglect
Documentary looks at lockdown pressures
THE daughter of an elderly woman who died in a care home after contracting Covid-19 believes staff absence rates led to her mother’s neglect.
Louise McKechnie says she found the frail OAP lying soiled and wet in a dirty room with an open bag of used PPE in her bathroom.
Bridget Snakenburg had been at Whitehills Care Home in East Kilbride for four years when she contracted Covid and then died four days after suffering a stroke.
Louise says on the day her mother died she cleaned her mouth and found old food that she had to “break off from her cheek”.
A BBC documentary due to be aired tonight has found that almost 180 warnings were raised by care homes about staffing levels during lockdown and managers felt pressure to accept hospital transfers before mass testing was introduced.
Homes were required to alert the Care Inspectorate to shortages at the height of the Covid-19 crisis from April 3 to June 17, when there were around 2400 more deaths in care homes than would normally be expected for that period.
Figures show, a total of 30 red warnings were issued, which means there is insufficient number of staff to properly meet residents’ needs, while 149 were amber, which means levels are close to impacting on the quality of care.
Ms McKechnie, who works in the care sector, said: “She’d been in her bed for a long time, and her room hadn’t been touched for a long time. The debris had built up. I’ve never seen a room like that.
“There weren’t enough care for their needs.
“She should not have been left in the first place to die like that.”
The figures were obtained through Freedom of Information requests for BBC Disclosure Scotland.
The programme reports that in the big push to clear hospital beds, many patients were moved into care homes without being tested.
Dr Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents the independent care sector, said: “I know of dozens of care homes, who are convinced, whose staff are convinced, that it was as a result of a discharge from a hospital or an admission from a hospital that they introduced Covid into the care home.”
Reporter Mark Daly asks: “Is it your understanding that care homes were under pressure to accept discharges from hospital?”
Dr Macaskill replies: “I think staff to