Former nurse admits to 'exceptionally bad' care at Caerphilly nursing home deaths inquest

A former nurse at a Caerphilly care home has admitted demonstrating a "shocking lack of care" for an elderly resident with dementia, an inquest has heard.

Daphne Richards said she realised residents at Brithdir Nursing Home, in New Tredegar, had suffered under her supervision.

She said she had been "overwhelmed" with responsibilities and a culture of ignoring individual care plans.

The inquests - which began on Monday - are hearing evidence into the deaths of several residents of the care home between 2003 and 2005, some of whom suffered from dehydration, malnourishment, and pressure sores.

On Wednesday, the hearing in Newport focused on the death of Stanley James, a former steelworker from Cardiff, who had a history of dementia and was unable to move and died in August 2003.

His death was not initially reported to the coroner and was given as inflammation in his lungs caused by old age and contributed to by dementia.

However, another report following a police investigation into the care he and others received at the home found it was likely that ulcers on his body 'made a minor contribution to his death by their effects on his frailty'.

An analysis of care plans put in place for Mr James, which showed he had developed a large number of sores from January 2002 and was at 'high risk' of developing more, included instructions for care staff to turn him onto a different part of his body every two hours day and night to relieve his pain.

Although no notes showing the progress of the plan were ever found, and only a handful of entries were made to his records by staff to show the repositioning had taken place and that he was being placed on a pressure-relieving mattress.

Mrs Richards, who joined Brithdir in February 2003 as a registered nurse and in 2004 became a manager, said she had never read Mr James' care records, but admitted she "must have somehow been aware" staff were failing to make entries to it.

She said: "I was not able to check those documents regular enough as they should have been checked.

"Sometimes I was overwhelmed with work."

Asked by coroner Geraint William how she or anyone else could have been assured the proper care was carried out, Mrs Richards said: "I'm not sure how to answer this.

"I would say they just didn't know."

Asked if she accepted it was her responsibility to make sure pressure care was given, and that by failing to do so that she accepted she was "in part responsible for the contribution to his death", she replied: "I know. Yes."

Mr Williams later said: "What you've described demonstrates a shocking lack of care for Mr James.

"A lack of care which could be described as truly, exceptionally bad. Would you accept that?"

Mrs Richards said: "Yes."

Mrs Richards said she was struck off the nursing register in 2015 following Gwent Police's Operation Jasmine, which was launched in 2005 and uncovered failings at a number of care homes in the area.

The inquests, set to last until March, will also look at the deaths of former Brithdir residents June Hamer, 71, Stanley Bradford, 76, Edith Evans, 85, Evelyn Jones, 87, and William Hickman, 71.

On Monday, the inquest heard schizophrenia-sufferer Mr Bradford was "observed to be seriously malnourished" by doctors before his death in September 2005.

Another dementia patient, Mrs Evans, had been admitted to hospital in September 2005 when the area around her feeding tube was found to be infected and she appeared "unkempt and dirty".

Dr Prana Das, who owned and ran the nursing home along with several other facilities in Wales, faced a string of charges relating to failings in care before he suffered a brain injury during a burglary at his home in 2012 and was declared medically unfit to stand trial.

Dr Das died in January last year aged 73, but his widow and co-owner of the care home, Dr Nishebita Das - who is said not to have taken part in running it - is expected to give evidence at the inquest.

A hearing into the death of a seventh resident, Matthew Higgins, 86, will be held following the conclusion of the other six.