A watchdog has cleared Shropshire Council of wrongdoing after the family of a man who died in a nursing home two years ago said he did not receive the care he needed.
The man’s wife said her husband should have placed in a hospice in his last weeks of life but was instead sent to a nursing home in which most other residents had dementia, though he did not.
She claimed staff at the home left her husband in urine-soaked clothes on several occasions, and she once found him sitting in a chair facing the wall.
But after investigating the family’s complaint, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has now concluded the council was not at fault.
The ombudsman conducted an investigation into the care provided to the man, who is named only as Mr X in the report to protect his and his family’s identities.
The report says he was initially placed in a care home in January 2018, but after a matter of days the management said it could no longer meet his needs. He was then transferred to a nursing home to receive more specialist care.
Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) assessed the man and concluded he did not qualify for a place in a hospice.
This was challenged by Shropshire Council, but the CCG did not change its view.
The ombudsman’s report said: “Mrs X says that Mr X experienced unpleasantness and poor care during his stay. This caused distress to her and her family as well as to Mr X.
“Mrs X says the council failed to follow up concerns she expressed to them about the standard of care at the nursing home.”
The man’s social worker raised his wife’s concerns with the home, but after viewing his records concluded that he had received appropriate care, including input from Macmillan nurses and hospice nursing staff.
The man died in February and his wife received a bill for his care a week after his death. The ombudsman’s report said: “The council recognised it had not completed the financial assessment before Mr X passed away.”
Concluding the investigation report, the ombudsman said the council had all relevant information before it when the decision was made to place the man at the nursing home.
It also ruled the council was not at fault in its investigation of Mrs X’s complaints about the care her husband was receiving at the nursing home.
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