Brithdir care home inquest: Resident 'unclean for some time'

An 85-year-old woman was sent from a care home to hospital without a member of staff, medical history or next of kin details, an inquest has heard.

Edith Evans arrived at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil from Brithdir care home "unclean, with hair matted and unkempt, incontinent and dirty with faeces, and had been in this condition for some time".

Her stomach feeding tube was infected with MRSA, which caused sepsis.

She died in September 2005.

The inquest in Newport is hearing evidence into the deaths of seven residents at the care home near Bargoed, Caerphilly county.

Rachel Pulman, a staff nurse at the hospital, gave details to the inquest of the condition she found Ms Evans in on her arrival.

She called the home for more information and found nurse-matron Philip McCaffrey "rude and uncooperative".

"He didn't appear to care about what was happening and wasn't interested," she said.

"His attitude was disgusting, he was uncooperative, rude and didn't seem caring at all."

Ms Evans's niece Gail Morris told the hearing that her aunt was the "life and soul of the family" but she suffered a "painful and distressing death" in September 2005.

She told the inquest that she had not been greatly concerned about her aunt's care at Brithdir until the point where she saw that the equipment being used to feed her was dirty.

She said she never saw the tube in Ms Evans's stomach and did not know she had an MRSA infection until she was taken to hospital.

Mrs Morris also told the inquiry her aunt was often not wearing her own clothes and that she could not understand how she had dirty fingernails when she was not mobile.

She said she had raised the issues with the patient's social worker and said the whole home could have done with a clean.

A social worker told the inquest a review she carried out into Ms Evans's care at Brithdir was not "robust enough".

Kerry Goodwyn said she was aware there were "overarching concerns" about the care home but there was "not enough meat on the bones".

She also admitted her own investigation into Ms Evans's care was "not to the best of my ability".

The inquest is hearing evidence into the deaths of six other former residents, including Stanley James, 89, June Hamer, 71, William Hickman, 71, Evelyn Jones, 87, and Matthew Higgins.

The hearings are expected to last until March.