A family claim their elderly mother is being “fast-tracked for the morgue” after a hidden camera exposed ‘neglect’ by care home staff – who left her nearly drowning in her own vomit.
The hidden camera footage shows vulnerable 83-year-old Sheila Morris being left alone overnight despite suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease which impairs her ability to swallow.
Her family said she was being “fast-tracked for the morgue” due to the neglect she suffered at the hands of her carers – because they consistently gave her the wrong foods.
Her concerned son Clive set up a hidden camera in his mum’s room and captured the moment nurses left her for more than six hours while she was violently sick overnight.
The 46-year-old says his mum was not put to bed in a safe position and told nurses she could have drowned on her vomit and died on the night of May 4 last year.
Clive said: “I think she has been fast-tracked for the morgue.
“My sister and I are the ones staying there, we were prepared to give up our lives and careers to do this.
“We’re paying over £1,000 a week and we’re doing the work.
“There was clearly something going on from the get go and they were not being straight with us.
“In part it was because I suspect there were looking at making fictitious abuse claims against my sister or me with a view to having us barred from the home.
“If that happened it would be curtains for my mum.”
Sheila’s children set up the camera in their mother’s room because they didn’t trust the home where she lived between March 2015 and July 2016.
During the 83-year-old’s 16-month stay at Priory Court nursing home she was given “dangerous” food and insufficient fluid levels and also suffered eight urinary tract infections.
Clive added: “We were also not happy with the amount of drink she was getting, there is a serious problem with fluid intake at Surrey Care homes.
“I didn’t have the camera set up for very long, it was after we had handed in our notice.
“When I arrived the nurses told me there had been an incident in the morning when she had been sick.
“The reason she didn’t drown was because she had her head raised in the bed because I had suggested it.
“They have shown a rare cunning and slyness in their dealings with us.
“It is the fact that they just did not check her at all, the door slammed shut at about 11.30pm and they did not open it until about 6.30 the next morning when she was woken up to be changed.
“They are meant to be checking on her a minimum of three times a night.
“We gave Priory Court a chance and we were there a year and handed in our notice and they got the council involved.
“They delayed our notice for several months got themselves about £20,000 in the process, I find that incredible.”
Priory Court home in Ewell, Surrey, was reported to the Care Quality Commission in February last year but after an assessment in March CQC inspectors rated the home “Good” and certified the home as “safe”.
Sheila was at Priory Court between March 2015 and July 2016 and has since been moved to a new care home in Kingston, Surrey.
Clive added: “I was annoyed about the norovirus outbreak in the week following because it was putting her at risk, and she should not have been there.
“If she got norovirus it could’ve been fatal.
“I have had the misfortune of sampling many care homes in the Surrey care system, and I have never known it as normal for homes to get norovirus.
“I am happy with the care she is getting in the new home but I would not have any elderly relatives in a care home run by Surrey County Council.”
A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “Protecting vulnerable people is our priority so the concerns raised about care at the home were investigated thoroughly as a matter of urgency but were found to be unsupported.
“We remain in contact with Mrs Morris to ensure all her concerns have been met and responded to.”
