Conwy care home overdosed man, 88, claim family

Kevin Collinson (left) said he would go on walks with his father John Collinson before the medication incident

An 88-year-old man with dementia was given 10 times his usual dosage of medication twice a day just weeks before he died, his family has claimed.

John Collinson's family said he was left "comatose" after being overdosed for a week at a care home in Kinmel Bay, Conwy, where he developed bedsores.

He died in hospital weeks later in August 2022.

Kinmel Lodge Dementia Home said it could not comment ahead of an inquest.

It added: "The management and staff of Kinmel Lodge have been deeply saddened to learn of the death of our former resident, Mr Collinson, who sadly died some six weeks after being moved from Kinmel Lodge care home to an alternative residence."

The date for the inquest, which will determine the cause of death, is yet to be fixed.

Mr Collinson's family said he had been dancing at the late Queen's jubilee celebrations at the care home just weeks before he was "bedridden" in July 2022.

Mr Collinson, a grandfather of 10 and great-grandfather of 12, had often walked with son Kevin along the seafront.

But upon a visit to the care home Kevin Collinson noticed his father was unresponsive and "incapacitated".

He said he told staff he believed the drugs were to blame but was repeatedly told this was not the case.

Kevin said a week later he received an email from someone at the care home who said his father had been overdosed "with an anti-psychotic drug".

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Kevin's sister Rhian Collinson said: "In the time dad had been bedridden, he had developed the most awful bedsore. Dad's heel was the size of a boiled egg.

"Subsequently the bedsore was actually what finished my dad off. For the next eight weeks he couldn't walk, it was septic."

A bedsore develops when blood supply to the skin is cut off for more than two to three hours. If left untreated it can lead to blood poisoning.

Mr Collinson developed a bedsore on his heel the size of a "hard boiled egg"

Kevin said he had been "a raving fan of Kinmel Lodge, especially through the lockdown" but "then standards properly slipped" and they "started to lose a lot of staff".

On one visit the siblings got their father out of bed and into a chair, which they say was not a pressure-sensitive mattress as it should have been if a patient was bedbound.

He said he did not want to leave his father still in the chair and stayed until a member of staff came to put his father to bed. That did not happen until just before midnight, Kevin said.

Mr Collinson had been left for "eight to 10 hours" in the chair, his son said, and it took staff "four hours" to get him into bed.

Kevin said there were two members of staff at the time - one upstairs and one downstairs.

Mr Collinson's children Kevin, Rhian and Kathy say they have been excluded from council communications surrounding his death

Kevin offered to help but he said the staff member refused as Kevin was not hoist trained, and the other member of staff was busy.

Kevin said he did not blame the individual staff members because "when you're under intense pressure, we can make mistakes" and believes the responsibility was with the owners of the business.

The family moved Mr Collinson to Llys Elian in Colwyn Bay and Rhian said they were "grateful" for their help.

But his health deteriorated and he was moved to a hospital, where he died on 30 August, 2022.

Conwy council, which runs Llys Elian, declined to comment.

The family have been in contact with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW), Conwy council, North Wales Police and Denbighshire Coroner's Court.

"Fundamentally, so far every one of those parties has been a bit of a joke," said Kevin.

"There are so many cracks in this system. The bit that grinds is the fact that nobody seems to care about connecting the relevant bodies, and ensuring it doesn't happen again."

Kevin says his dad was "much loved" by their family

The family claim they were excluded from discussions about the case with Conwy council for almost seven months after Rick's death.

In a call to the family on 24 March this year, a council representative said none of the four key people involved in managing the case had seen a photo of Rick's bedsore.

They said the council was first notified about the overdose on 18 July 2022.

"In theory, under the Wales safeguarding procedures, they [Kinmel Lodge] have a duty of care to report immediately so we should have been told within the first 24 hours of them finding out," the representative said in the call.

But Kevin said this meant the council should have been notified on 7 July, as this was when he received an email from a staff member at the home saying there had been a "medication error" issued to his father.

John Collinson was under the care of Kinmel Lodge for two years

Kinmel Lodge said in a statement: "Any public comment or speculation could be deemed prejudicial to these proceedings [the inquest] and it would be wrong of us, or anyone else, to make any conjectures on this until such time as the inquest is concluded.

"We continue to be committed to providing the very best care to all our residents at Kinmel Lodge and would be happy to talk to any resident or family member who has any concerns about any public comments."

CIW said Kinmel Lodge was subject to its "enforcement process therefore it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time".

It added that local authorities were "responsible for safeguarding investigations where a person may have suffered harm" but it would "always take action where we find evidence that a provider has not complied with the regulations for providing a care home service".

Denbighshire Coroner's Court, North Wales Police and Conwy council all declined to comment.