Mavis Dewey was 89 years old when she died at the Northern General Hospital on March 29, South Yorkshire West’s assistant coroner Steve Eccleston said in a prevention of future deaths report. In it, he outlined his concerns that agency staff, on occasion, failed to read care plans to keep residents safe. Mr Eccleston found Ms Dewey had died only six days after a fall at the Heeley Bank Care Home in Sheffield on March 23 when staff used the wrong equipment to help her stand in breach of her care plan.
Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with a Digital subscription to Yorkshire Post, you can get access to all of our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. The coroner added: “Her death was contributed to by neglect from Heeley Bank Care Home.” The coroner said Ms Dewey had become “frailer with a number of underlying health conditions” and her level of need had required residential care.
This was something Heeley Bank Care Home had provided her, the report said. She had had a care plan and it had been set out that she had required two members of staff to help her stand together with a standing aid and sling. The report said: “On March 23, 2024, Mavis was being assisted to stand by two members of staff in her own room.
A stand aid was present in her room but so also was a Zimmer frame. It was not possible to establish how the Zimmer frame got there. Advertisement Advertisement “Ms Davison for Monarch and Heeley Bank accepted that it was entirely inappropriate for the two members of staff to use the Zimmer frame to help Mavis stand, but this is what they did.
” Mr Eccleston was told that as Mavis had been helped to stand, she asked to use the toilet. One member of staff had left her with her colleague and supported on the Zimmer frame. However, her legs had given way and she had fallen to the floor and cut her right leg, the inquest found.
An ambulance was called and she was taken to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield where a fracture to the right proximal tibia and fibula had been found, Mr Eccleston said, adding she also had Covid-19. The report said: “Despite appropriate care in hospital, Mavis did not recover and she died there on March 29.” Advertisement Advertisement Mr Eccleston said it remained unclear why the carers failed to comply with the care plan.
It seemed like the carers used the Zimmer frame “which was to hand”. He added: “I found that there was no good reason for what they did. This failure led directly to Mavis’ eventual death.
” The chief executive of the Monarch Group, operator of Heeley Bank Care Home, must respond to the coroner by October 3..
