Neglected dad, 83, was ‘not washed for days’ before dying in care home during lockdown

An elderly man who was placed in a care home after suffering from a stroke was “not washed for days” according to his daughter.

Joseph Ainsworth, 83, was taken into a care home on March 20 last year, three days before the country’s Covid lockdown began.

Just under two months later, on May 15, the pensioner passed away after suffering a second stroke.

His daughter, Lynne Carville, said that his final days were so bleak that his death came as somewhat of a “relief,” reports the Liverpool Echo.

When family members visited Rowan Garth Nursing Home in Lower Breck Road, Anfield they witnessed Joseph left for hours in his room with the door shut, sometimes unwashed, and at times dehydrated and shouting for a nurse.

Lynne said: “”It sounds strange but after he passed away there was a huge sense of relief that he wasn’t being tortured every second of the day.

“In the end we just wanted to forget about it and remember him how he was.”

This week the Care Quality Commission (CQC) remonstrated Rowan Garth after an inspection.

The state of the facility, run by Bloomcare, part of Wellington Healthcare (Ardern), was so dire CQC head of adult social care inspection, Hayley Moore, said: “This sort of care is absolutely unacceptable, and no person should ever have to live like this.”

Lynne said things became bad at the home after the first lockdown was introduced.

She said: “From lockdown when they knew nobody was able to come in it just went from bad to worse. They were horrible to us.

“We had to stand outside the window and talk to him and some days we could see he had not had his teeth cleaned for days, there was so much white stuff on his teeth.

“Because of the stroke he could only move one side of his body, but they kept putting the table with his water on the paralysed side so when we saw him he was completely parched.

“They never dressed him properly, or cleaned him properly. He had the same t-shirt on for three days with food on it.”

Lynne said her dad was stoic and would not raise a fuss about his treatment.

She said: “He would say to me ‘don’t explain, don’t complain’.”

Bloomcare did not reply to a request to comment on Joseph’s treatment.

However the firm previously gave a statement in response to the damning CQC inspection saying: “We acknowledge there were areas where we fell short of the high standards our residents and relatives rightfully expect and deserve, and we took immediate action and have a comprehensive action plan in place to address this.”

Liverpool Council has also said its adult social care team is reviewing each resident at Rowan Garth “to ensure their needs are being adequately met”.

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