Care home resident's deterioration 'unnoticed' in Covid outbreak

Murray Hyslop was described by his son as a keen walker and family man

An 82-year-old's deteriorating health went "unnoticed" before his death as an understaffed care home dealt with a Covid outbreak, an inquest heard.

Murray Hyslop died in January 2021 after being taken to hospital malnourished and dehydrated.

He would have had a better chance of surviving had he been treated earlier, the inquest in Nottingham was told.

The coroner said he continued to have concerns about Willow Tree House care home in Mansfield.

Mr Hyslop, who had Parkinson's Disease, contracted Covid-19 during an outbreak at the home in mid-December 2020, Nottingham Coroner's Court heard.

He began to eat and drink very little, which exacerbated his condition and led to kidney problems.

In a narrative conclusion, assistant coroner Gordon Clow said Mr Hyslop was "significantly frail and unwell" on 20 and 21 December 2020.

But he said staff did not seek medical help for him until 23 December and he was not taken to King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield until Christmas Eve.

By the time he arrived he was emaciated and unresponsive, the inquest was told.

He died on 16 January 2021, and the medical cause of death was given as pneumonia and ischaemic heart disease.

'Perfect storm'

In his findings, Mr Clow said at the time Willow Tree House was "in the grip of a Covid-19 outbreak".

All but one resident tested positive and the "vast majority" of the staff did too.

"There existed a perfect storm of a significant increase in the amount of care needed from the staff and a significant decrease in available staff for each shift," Mr Clow added.

"The individual carers worked hard and did what they could, but were clearly not able to maintain the level of care during the outbreak.

"Against this backdrop, the significant deterioration of Mr Hyslop... went unnoticed."

Mr Hyslop was a great-grandfather

But he said there did not appear to have been enough training or preparation for such an outbreak, despite how far in to the pandemic it was.

Both the hospital and Mr Hyslop's son raised concerns about his care to the local authority, who investigated and found the allegation of negligence was fully substantiated.

The Care Quality Commission also carried out an inspection on the back of the son's complaints and rated the home "inadequate".

It has since improved this to "requires improvement".

Mr Clow said he had concerns about the care home, including a "culture within the leadership of seeking to obfuscate and deflect concerns rather than to seek to learn".

He said he planned to write to the care home to ask what action was being taken to prevent further deaths.

Mr Hyslop's son Andy, 57, said his father was "a brilliant dad".

He said: "It's been acknowledged his care was not as it should have been. We want to prevent any more suffering to other people."