Nurse cared 'sincerely' for Brithdir care home residents, inquest told
- Published
Edith Evans spent six years at Brithdir Care Home
A nurse has told an inquest he cared "sincerely and genuinely" for residents at a care home where he worked.
Philip McCaffrey rejected an assertion by assistant coroner Geraint Williams that he did not.
An inquest in Newport is hearing evidence into the deaths of seven residents of Brithdir Nursing Home between 2003 and 2005.
Some of them suffered dehydration, malnourishment and pressure sores.
Mr McCaffrey worked at the home near Bargoed, Caerphilly, from June 2005 to January 2006.
The assistant coroner took Mr McCaffrey through documents detailing concerns of care staff about Edith Evans, 85, and the deteriorating condition of a feeding tube to her stomach.
The dementia sufferer was admitted to hospital on 16 September, 2005, with an antibiotic-resistant infection and an infection at the site of the 'peg system' feeding tube.
Mrs Evans, a widow, died two weeks later.
A pathologist found her death was caused by sepsis, which developed from the peg site.
The inquest into the deaths at Brithdir care home comes after a major police investigation
The infection had been present "seven weeks before admission to hospital," the inquest heard.
The nurse Mr McCaffrey told the inquest he had no recollection of being told of concerns about Mrs Evans.
"Any time any of the care staff mentioned an issue to me I (would) always go and investigate the issue and I have no recollection of carers involving me with Mrs Evans's peg site," he said.
Mr Williams said when he made notes "all you record is 'peg feeding regime maintained'."
"Your entries are bland to the point of being useless," added the assistant coroner.
"How can it be that the carers are making notes (in) which they tell you, as the only person on duty, that there is a problem, and you don't make any record of it at all?"
If carers had a problem with a resident, Mr McCaffrey said, they would go to him.
Then he would go and "see what the problem was."
He said: "One did not have the time to read the carers' notes every day to follow on from one day to the next.
"You relied on carers to come to you with problems associated with the resident they were caring for."
Mr Williams said: "Isn't the reality that you were told and you did nothing because you didn't care?"
Mr McCaffrey said he "cared sincerely and genuinely for all of the residents in Brithdir."
"It would be wrong to think I didn't care," he said.
The death of Stanley Bradford is also among those being looked into at the inquest
Mr McCaffrey, now retired, told the inquest he had no knowledge of the worsening condition of Mrs Evans' peg site, though documents showed he took a swab of it on September 5, 2005.
The coroner asked if that meant he "must have understood the site was deteriorating."
Mr McCaffrey said that was "correct."
The next day another nurse wrote in Mrs Evans's notes about the peg site being "mucky".
A day later, Mr McCaffrey wrote in her notes: "Peg regime maintained."
The coroner suggested Mr McCaffrey should have called a doctor by this point.
Mr McCaffrey said "Generally, when I found it necessary, I would call the GP."
The inquest, set to last until March, is also looking at the deaths of former Brithdir residents Stanley James, 89, June Hamer, 71, Stanley Bradford, 76, Evelyn Jones, 87, and William Hickman, 71.
A hearing into the death of a seventh resident, Matthew Higgins, 86, will be held following the conclusion of the other six.
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