Nursing home neglect contributed to death (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Nursing home neglect contributed to death

7:42pm Saturday 30th June 2007 in Devizes By Gazette Reporter

THE death of a Chippenham woman was contributed to by the neglect she suffered at a care home in Devizes, an inquest ruled yesterday.

Betty Margaret Robinson, a sociable 89-year-old who liked knitting, died in hospital after a seven-week stay in Avonmead Nursing Home in Devizes.

Mrs Robinson's daughter Maureen Davies and grandson Adrian Davies, both from Melksham, had serious concerns about the standard of care she received there.

Yesterday, deputy coroner for the district of Avon, Brian Whitehouse, recorded a verdict of death by natural causes, contributed to by neglect.

Mrs Robinson's family are now calling for the care home to be reprimanded.

The 89-year-old was admitted from her home in Westcroft, Chippenham, with a bedsore at the bottom of her back, which got steadily worse during her time there.

By the time she was admitted to the Royal United Hospital in February last year the sore had developed into a two-inch by three-inch wound which was covered by dead flesh.

It was one-inch deep and extended to her sacrum bone, at the base of her spine.

She died in hospital on April 3 despite the care of doctors who had managed to reverse the decline of the sore.

The inquest heard that the care home failed to obtain the correct dressings to apply to Mrs Robinson's bedsore for a period of two weeks.

Giving evidence before the result, during a jury inquest at Kings Weston House in Bristol, the care home manager Sharon Cottrell, from Devizes, said: "I cannot remember what dressing is what. I'm the manager, I just sit in the office."