Care provider apologises to families after complaints

The family of a resident at Astell House Care Home were left in "severe distress and frustration"

A care provider has apologised and changed its management team after complaints about how people were treated.

Lilian Faithfull Care, a charity with six care homes and 300 residents in Gloucestershire, has had two complaints upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Issues were raised over poor record keeping, cleaning, food provision and data breaches.

The charity has apologised to the affected families and the ombudsman is satisfied with the actions taken to resolve the problems.

A woman, referred to as Mrs X, lodged a complaint after her family were left with "severe distress and frustration" due to the quality of care provided to her late mother, Mrs Y.

While at Astell House Care Home in Cheltenham, Mrs Y experienced significant weight loss, poor pain management and poor general care, said Mrs X.

She also suffered 10 falls there, her daughter said.

No initial three-month care reviews were carried out either, despite being promised in the care home documentation.

Lilian Faithfull apologised for the failures in care and for its poor record keeping.

Issues were also raised at Resthaven Nursing Home near Stroud

A second complaint was lodged about care at Resthaven Nursing Home in Pitchcombe, near Stroud.

A woman, referred to as Mrs Z, complained Lilian Faithfull failed to carry out a safeguarding investigation and deal with data breaches when her late mother's iPad was accessed by staff.

Mrs Z said it caused her mother "unnecessary anxiety and discomfort" during the last few months of her life.

The care provider accepted fault in cleaning, meal provision and the data breach.

The ombudsman said Lilian Faithfull had taken appropriate action in respect of the faults, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Lilian Faithfull said it had hired additional nursing staff and improved record systems.

It added: “Providing residential care services is very complex and unfortunately we don’t always get everything right.

“Both of these cases happened some time ago and since then we have worked hard to learn lessons and put remedies in place to ensure that they do not happen again."