'Cost cutting' care firm fined over broken boilers

A pathology report said Doreen Osborne died from bronchopneumonia and hypothermia

A company has been fined after failing to repair broken boilers at a care home where a resident died of hypothermia.

Diamond Care UK admitted failings at Pine Heath care home in Norfolk, which has since closed.

The firm was fined £86,000 in a case brought by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Sentencing, District Judge Timothy King said the firm engaged in "cost cutting at the expense of safety".

The case, held at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, heard Diamond Care pleaded guilty to "failing in its duty to provide safe care and treatment which resulted in a significant risk of exposure to avoidable harm" to residents.

Pine Heath care home in High Kelling, Norfolk, was closed in May 2017

The care home - which closed in May 2017 - was described as an old, poorly-insulated building, with boilers dating back to the 1960s.

According to a report by the Norfolk Adult Safeguarding Board, one boiler failed in the summer of 2016, leaving the home dependent on a second, which also failed the following October.

As a result, the home was without hot water and heating for weeks.

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Son-in-law David Sampson says staff at the "freezing" care home were wearing coats while Mrs Osborne was only in a nightie

Resident Doreen Osborne, 95, died of hypothermia after an ambulance was called to the home in November 2016.

Her family told the BBC her room was "extremely cold" in the days before her death.

They said staff walked around in coats as she lay in bed wearing just a "flimsy nightie".

The safeguarding report also said staff used portable heaters and carried hot water in jugs.

The day before she died, a GP prescribed Mrs Osborne antibiotics for a chest infection, but details were faxed to the wrong chemist and she never received the medication, the inquiry found.

The following day an ambulance responded to a 999 call at the home where they found Mrs Osborne severely hypothermic with a temperature of 27.5C.

Five other residents were also found to be hypothermic but did not require treatment.

'It was freezing in that room'

On admission to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Mrs Osborne was also found to have pneumonia, and she died later that afternoon.

Mrs Osborne's son-in-law David Sampson said: "It was very cold. It was freezing in that room.

"It's terrible, people walking around wrapped up, all the carers were wrapped up warm and she was just lying on this bed with a thin cover on her with the window open, which couldn't be closed."

Diamond Care director Kaldish Singh could not be reached for comment.

But the court heard the impact of what happened on him had been "catastrophic".

According to the CQC, the poor condition of Pine Heath's two ageing boilers was raised with Diamond Care by environmental health officials in 2015.

But essential maintenance was not carried out.

Matthew Jenkins, CQC head of inspection for adult social care, said: "Diamond Care failed its residents in this as it did not adequately maintain Pine Heath's boilers, despite warnings they were not in good working order.

"When these boilers inevitably failed, vulnerable people - whose health could be jeopardised by prolonged exposure to cold - faced a significant risk of avoidable harm".