Care home fined after woman, 100, fractures knee

Red House Residential Home in Sudbury was ordered to pay a £14,000 fine and £11,000 in costs

A care home has been ordered to pay £25,000 after a 100-year-old resident fractured her knee when her foot became trapped under a wheelchair.

Patricia Jones was being pushed down a ramp at Red House Residential Home in Sudbury, Suffolk, in March 2019.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said risk assessments determining the type of wheelchair she should use were incomplete.

A district judge heard the company, which pleaded guilty to one offence under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, felt "bitter regret" over the incident.

'Ballooned'

CQC prosecutor Danielle Gilmour told Chelmsford Magistrates' Court that Mrs Jones did not like using her specialised electronic wheelchair, which had individual elevated feet plates.

A care home risk assessment, from November 2018, noted her feet could fall off the footboard of manual wheelchairs, but sections about specific risks and control measures were blank.

Ms Gilmour said she was taken to hospital by ambulance when her knees "ballooned in size" after the incident on 12 March.

She broke the distal femur thighbone in her right knee and a consultant suggested amputation or surgery.

Mrs Jones instead spent 16 weeks in a cast and was diagnosed with delirium while in hospital, before being transferred to a new nursing home in Sudbury.

Ms Gilmour said the defendant failed to "provide safe care" and "to ensure she had the mental capacity to consent" over the wheelchair.

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Jones's eldest daughter Jennifer Baird said her mother would otherwise be enjoying a more "fulfilling" existence.

She said her mother, who grew up in Barry, south Wales, ran her own business and travelled the world - and still enjoyed wearing make-up and being taken shopping at the time of the incident.

'Challenging'

Steven Dyble, defending, argued that Mrs Jones "evidentially" had mental capacity to choose her own wheelchair, but admitted risk assessments should have been completed.

"The remorse and bitter regret that the care home and those who operate the care home feel, as a consequence of the incident, is genuine," said Mr Dyble.

"They are doing their best in a very difficult environment and I ask you to have regard given the issues with Covid and finding the appropriate levels of staffing.

"It is an exceedingly challenging working environment."

The court heard Red House Welfare and Housing Society was a not-for-profit company and turned over just under £1.1m in 2021.

It was convicted of one count of exposing a person to "significant risk of avoidable harm".

District Judge Timothy King imposed a £14,000 fine, £11,000 in costs and a £170 surcharge.

Speaking after the hearing, CQC head of inspection for adult social care, Louise Broddle, said: "I hope this prosecution reminds healthcare providers of their legal duty to always take all reasonable steps to ensure people's safety."

The court heard the company had also reached an out-of-court compensation settlement with the family.

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