A concerned Barnet resident has drawn my attention to the exceptionally sad case of Jesse Moores. He was a young man with learning disabilities, autism and Tourettes Sydrome, living at The Chine, a residential home run by Robinia Care, who died of a tragic and preventable accident in 2005.
I would urge everyone to read the Serious Case Review which has just been published and to think about why it happened and the risks of it happening again.
If nothing else it illustrates that there are exceptionally vulnerable people who live in our community and who need to the best possible care to safeguard their lives. When the government and local authorities talk about cuts, it is often the most vulnerable people who suffer. We must ensure that political dogma and the desire for efficiency savings never impact on those whose lives depend on receiving the best possible care.
Reading the review it clear that there were some pretty serious contracting and contract management issues that Barnet failed to deal with. It is shocking and the big risk is that the current fad for outsourcing will generate many more similar incidents.
ReplyDeleteThis awful incident reminded me of the death I witnessed at my late father's care home (now run by Southern Cross) around the same time. I think I referred to it in my blogpost 'Growing old in Broken Barnet'. An elderly resident with advanced dementia died while eating, unsupervised by staff, and they failed to respond in any appropriate way to his needs, only calling an ambulance at my insistence, and then, incredibly, and showing a repugnant lack of respect, dragging his body out of the room on a sheet in front of everyone. I reported the incident but nothing happened of any significance. The truth is that the pressure on local authorities to find placements for people with mental health needs causes a lack of scrutiny of the private service providers who are given the contracts. This is the inevitable end to massive outsourcing of care and other services, and it can have tragic consequences, as we see.
ReplyDeleteI saw this story on the Barnet Council website and I am quite disgusted
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