Son awarded £5,000 after mum was over medicated in Rochdale care home

Andrew Oldham with a photograph of his mother, Barbara Oldham

A son has received a £5,000 pay-out after care home staff abused his mother by giving her repeated overdoses of the sedative Promazine, which is used to treat severely agitated behaviour.

Andrew Oldham, 47, was awarded the settlement in relation to treatment received by his late mother, Barbara Oldham, at Carders Court care home in Castleton, Rochdale.

Mrs Oldham first began residing at BUPA Carders Court in July 2002 after the previous care home she lived in closed down.

Having suffered from depression for more than 30 years, Mrs Oldham was prescribed 5mls of Promazine on an irregular ‘PRN’ (pro re nata) basis. This means it was to be used at night as and when required to boost her mood, but not on a regular basis. This was dropped to 2.5mls on 12 December 2011 following a visit by a community psychiatric nurse who recommended that the prescription should be reduced.

After this, Mr Oldham started to become more worried about his mum.

He said: “I had concerns about my mother’s care since she moved into Carders Court because it seemed certain staff members took a disliking to her, and I reported a number of incidents to management.

“My mum was a lovely, bubbly character but she started to become withdrawn and appeared more sedated and drugged every time I visited her. Sometimes she was asleep for the whole visit so I raised concerns with various members of staff that she appeared over-medicated but it fell on deaf ears. I became convinced that she was being given too many drugs.”

Mr Oldham’s fears intensified after he visited his mum on Christmas Day 2011, and found her slumped on a chair unable to hold her head up, speak, or walk.

He added: “I broke down in tears as soon as I saw my mum in that state. She was sat in a chair and couldn’t lift her head. This wasn’t the person I knew.

“I asked staff what they had done to her and they just said she was tired and it was not as a result of any medication she was being prescribed. I know the difference between being tired and drugged – and my mum had been drugged.

“That was the final straw so I put in an official complaint with social services in Rochdale and asked for my mum to be transferred to a new home.”

Following Mr Oldham’s allegations Kate Hilt, a social worker at Rochdale Council Adult Care Services, conducted an investigation into the care of Barbara Oldham and the results were presented at a Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board case conference.

The safeguarding investigation found that, despite not needing it regularly, Mrs Oldham was given the PRN Promazine medication by care home staff on a regular nightly basis from 5 October 2011. This was evidenced by staff signatures against each date on the Medication Administration Records (MAR). The drug was also found to be administered on nights where records document that Mrs Oldham was settled and not agitated.

The review also discovered that between the 18 and 25 December 2011, Mrs Oldham was regularly given double the prescribed dosage of the sedative, despite staff knowing she was only meant to have 2.5ml.

On 10 January 2012, Mrs Oldham was moved to Springhill Resource Centre, a short-term relief home, during the probe into her condition.

Mr Oldham said: “She had to spend six months at Springhill to get all of the medication pumped out of her system, before moving to Meadow View care home in Castleton. It was like a heroin addict going cold turkey. A lot of the staff knew my mum, having worked at her previous care home, and they were shocked at her condition.

“I thought I would never see my mum happy again but with the great care she received at Springhill and the excellent care at Meadow View she was soon back to her old self, making all the staff laugh.”

Mr Oldham was appalled by the neglect that happened during the time his mum spent at Carders Court so he started a claim against Bupa Services Ltd in order to "get justice" for his mum and "raise awareness" so it would not happen again.

Mrs Oldham died at the age of 85 on 23 March 2014 midway through the claim. Seven months later, on 23 October 2014, a letter was sent from Bupa Services and Mr Oldham received an out of court settlement of £5,000.

Chris Achilles, a solicitor at Patient Claim Line, who helped secure the compensation package for Mr Oldham, said: “We're glad that we've been able to help the family get some compensation for the neglect that Barbara suffered during her time at Carder Court in Rochdale.

"At Patient Claim Line, we passionately believe that care providers should be held responsible for wrongdoings that cause harm to people in their care. By highlighting cases of medical negligence such as this, we can force health care providers to face up to mistakes and make improvements rather than just sweeping them under the carpet.”

Mr Oldham said: “I can’t thank Chris and the team at Patient Claim Line enough. Although I’ll never be able to forget how badly my mother was treated at Carders Court, the compensation goes some way towards giving my mum the justice she deserves.”

A spokesperson for the home said: “We are sorry that Mrs Oldham’s care did not meet our usual high standards. The health and wellbeing of our residents is our absolute priority.

“This was an isolated incident that happened two years ago.

"The medication had been prescribed by the resident’s own doctor to be given ‘as required’.

"The home has since taken action to prevent this happening again. We have introduced a new policy whereby staff must notify the resident’s GP if a resident has been given ‘as required’ (PRN) medication for five consecutive days. Staff have also been given extra training to ensure that they fully document the reasons why a PRN medication has been administered.

“The home has remained fully compliant with CQC standards during this time.”

For more information visit www.patientclaimline.com