Summary: Mr D complains about how his mother was treated when she stayed at the Care Provider’s care home for around two weeks. However, there is no evidence of fault in how the care home dealt with any of the matters Mr D has raised, or any evidence that Mrs D suffered any injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr D, complains about how his mother, whom I shall refer to as Mrs D, was treated when she stayed at the Care Provider’s care home for around two weeks. Mr D complains that:
1. Staff failed to administer ear drops to his mother.
2. His mother’s room was dirty and had fruit flies in it.
3. The quality of food was poor.
4. The television his mother was given was not suitable as it did not have subtitles.
5. Mr D was delayed in entering the home when he came to visit.
6. His mother’s newspapers were not delivered.

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated points 1-5 of Mr D’s complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about adult social care providers and decide whether their actions have caused an injustice, or could have caused injustice, to the person making the complaint. I have used the term fault to describe such actions. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B and 34C)
4. If we are satisfied with a Care Provider’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and information received from Mr D; and
• reviewed and considered information received from the Care Provider; and
• spoke with Mr D about her complaint.
6. I also sent a draft version of this decision statement to both parties and invited their comments.

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What I found

7. In 2019, Mrs D spent two nights in hospital after having a fall. She subsequently spent about two weeks at the Care Provider’s care home to recover and gain her confidence back.
8. The Care Provider produced a care plan for Mrs D which detailed her care needs for her stay at the home. The care plan showed that Mrs D had very poor hearing, and one of her ears was full of wax which needed to be treated with olive oil.
9. The day after she was admitted, Mrs D was assessed by a doctor who confirmed that Mrs D’s ears should be treated with olive oil daily and that an appointment should be made with an audiologist.
10. Mr D says that when he visited the care home the following day, the treatment to Mrs D’s ears had not taken place. Mr D says that the care homes failure to treat his mother’s ears, resulted in the audiologist appointment being cancelled.
11. In responding to his complaint, the care home manager said, although the carer did have some problems finding the olive oil on the day Mr D visited, a new bottle was purchased on the same day and no treatments were missed. The care home manager said that it was the doctor’s surgery that cancelled the appointment, and this was not due to any fault by the care home.
12. Care records show that Mrs D’s ear treatment started the day after she was assessed by the GP, and that twice daily treatments continued for 11 days. There is no record that any treatments were missed.
13. An appointment was made with an audiologist for Mrs D’s ears to be syringed one week after treatment had started. However, records show the surgery contacted the care home to cancel the appointment. It was rearranged to take place four days later, when records show Mrs D’s ears were successfully syringed.
14. Mr D said that the day after his mother arrived at the care home he visited her and noticed that there were small flies in her room and the television in the room would not display subtitles. Mr D said he subsequently brought in a subtitled television for his mother.
15. In response to Mr D’s complaint, the care home manager said that it does not provide TV’s for residents, but if a spare TV is available it will put one in their room and this is what happened in Mrs D’s case.
16. Mr D said he visited his mother again and had difficulty gaining entry to the care home. Mr D said he had to wait 12 minutes before gaining access. Upon arrival to Mrs D’s room, Mr D said there were more flies.
17. Mr D said he subsequently met with the care home manager and mentioned the flies in his mother’s room and the care home manager arranged for a deep clean of the room the following day.
18. Mr D said a few days later the flies returned. He did not say if he mentioned this to the care home manager again.
19. The care home manager apologised that Mr D had trouble gaining access to the care home.
20. Addressing the issue of flies in Mrs D’s room, the care home manager said that the flies likely came from the gardens, but as soon as Mr D brought the issue to her attention she acted to resolve this by arranging the room to be cleaned the manager also said that she offered a free room upgrade but this was not taken up. The manager said Mr D did not raise the issues of flies in the room again.
21. Finally, Mr D complained about the quality of food at the care home, which Mrs D had described as ‘disgusting’. Mr D said he spoke with the care manager and asked her to speak to Mrs D about it, but instead the chef spoke to her. Mr D said that because his mother felt intimidated, she told the chef that the food was just not to her taste.
22. In response to this element of the complaint, the care manager said she had spoken to Mrs D herself and explained that the catering team could make her something else if she was dissatisfied with any meal. The care home manager said that Mrs D responded by saying “it was a lot of fuss over nothing”.

Analysis

23. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened. However, we can only do this where there is enough evidence to reach a reasonable view either way.
24. I will address each of Mr D’s points of complaint in turn.
25. Having reviewed Mrs D’s care records I am unable to find any evidence of fault in how the care home treated her ear with olive oil, or that it was responsible for the canceled doctor’s appointment. Nor can I find any evidence that Mrs D suffered any injustice.
26. Records show the treatment was carried out twice daily until Mrs D’s appointment. Records also show that it was the surgery called to cancel the first appointment.
27. Mr D told the Ombudsman that if he had not brought the missing ear drops to the attention of staff, he believes his mother may have gone without the treatment for a number of days. However, it is not for the Ombudsman to speculate on what may have happened if circumstances had been different.
28. The care home manager has apologised that Mr D had to wait so long to gain access to the premises. Having considered this element of Mr D’s complaint, I am not convinced a significant injustice was caused by the delay, and because the care home manager has apologised I do not consider that I could achieve a different outcome, even if I were to find fault.
29. When Mr D reported flies in his mother’s room the care home manager acted quickly to resolve the matter. There is no evidence that this was mentioned again by Mr D so I am unable to conclude that the care home was at fault in how they responded to this matter, or that Mrs D suffered any significant injustice.
30. As the care home do not offer televisions in every room, I am unable to find fault with them for not providing one with subtitles for Mrs D.
31. It seems from Mr D’s complaint and the reported interactions between the care home and Mrs D that any issues Mrs D had with the food were down to personal taste rather than any specific issue with the catering provided.
32. I also note that this issue doesn’t appear to have been raised with the care home until a few days before she left. When the matter was raised it seems that the care home took reasonable steps to try and rectify the matter.
33. Having considered this point, I do not consider there to be sufficient evidence to find that the Care Provider were at fault in how it provided meals to Mrs D.

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Final decision

34. I have concluded my investigation on the basis that there is no evidence of fault in how the care home dealt with the matters raised by Mr D, or that Mrs D suffered any significant injustice.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

35. I have not investigated Mr D’s complaint that Mrs D’s newspapers were not delivered. This was a private arrangement between Mr D and the newsagent and is therefore out of our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman