Care home owner fined after 91-year-old resident dies of hypothermia

The owners of a care home, where an elderly woman died of hypothermia, have been ordered by York Crown Court to pay a fine of £1.6 million after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety regulations.

91-year-old Annie Barritt died at Oaklands Country Rest Home at Kirk Hamilton, near York. The case against Maria Mallaband Care Group Limited, was brought by Harrogate Borough Council.

Ms Barritt was taken to Harrogate hospital after being found unwell in her room on Sunday 4 November, 2012. Her temperature was 25.3°C, rather than the average normal body temperature of 37°C. She died that night. A postmortem confirmed that she had died of hypothermia.

An inquest was held in November 2015 and found that there had been an inappropriately low temperature in the resident’s room and a failure to provide adequate basic care. Ms Barritt required 24 hour care as she had been suffering from dementia and as a consequence was unable to make a decision about regulating the temperature in her room.

Following sentencing, David and Anthony Barritt, the sons of the deceased said:

“The last four years have been very hard for the family, coming to terms with the tragic circumstances of mum’s death from hypothermia. It is hard to believe that an elderly lady with dementia could be treated in such an appalling way in a care home that claimed to specialise in the care of such vulnerable people.

“A fine, no matter how large, could ever replace a loved one; what price can you put on your mother’s life? We can only hope that mother’s sad and unnecessary death may be served to improve standards at Maria Mallaband Care Group’s care homes and god willing prevent such a tragic event from ever happening again.”

Harrogate Borough Council launched its own investigation into the death. It revealed that there had been a problem with the heating system at the care home, staff had had not updated the resident’s care plan when she was discharged from hospital a week earlier, and on the day of her death the resident had not been provided with any hot food or a hot drink.

Maria Mallaband Care Group Limited was fined £1.6 million and ordered to pay Harrogate Borough Council’s costs of £45,560 making a total of £1,645,560.

Tony Moule, the Environmental Health Officer at Harrogate Borough Council who conducted the investigation said: