Care group fined £1.6m after woman freezes to death in care home

A 91-year old woman froze to death in her care home one winter's night because of a broken heating system, resulting in a care group being fined £1.6m for health and safety breaches.

Annie Barritt died of hypothermia on 4 November 2012, after trying to sleep in a cold room with no hot food or drink at Oaklands Country Rest Home in Kirk Hammerton, near York.

A nurse at the care home, run by Maria Mallaband Care Group (MMCG), noticed the resident was not well at 7.50pm that Sunday evening and felt cold.

The woman had a core temperature of 25.3°C - more than ten degrees below the average normal body temperature of 37°C and was taken to Harrogate District Hospital. She died later that night.

On 28 September, York Crown Court fined the care home’s owner MMCG £1.6m and ordered it to pay Harrogate Borough Council’s costs of £45,560, after the group plead guilty to breaching health and safety regulations.

Harrogate District Council said: “An inquest was held in November 2015 and found that there had been an inappropriately low temperature in the resident’s room and a failure to provide adequate basic care.

“The resident required 24 hour care as she had been suffering from dementia and as a consequence was unable to make a decision about regulating the temperature in her room.

Broken heating system

“The investigation revealed that there had been a problem with the heating system at the care home.

“Staff had not updated the resident’s care plan when she was discharged from hospital a week earlier, and on the day of her death the resident had not been provided with any hot food or a hot drink.”

Staff and relatives of residents had warned management repeatedly for two years that the oil-fired heating in the home did not work properly but nothing had been done to fix it.

The court was told, the home had run out of fuel on numerous occasions in the two winters before Mrs Barritt's death.

The findings of an inquest into the resident's death led to the care group, which at the time operated 30 UK care homes and cared for more than 2,500 residents, being summoned to court for ‘a breach of care’ contrary to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Case ‘beggars belief’

Tony Moule, the environmental health officer at Harrogate Borough Council involved in the investigation said: “For an elderly, vulnerable person to suffer hypothermia, whilst in bed in her room under the care of a national care provider, beggars belief.

“We welcome the court’s decision to impose a significant fine.

“Care homes must take their responsibilities seriously and Maria Mallaband Care Group Limited failed in its duty of care. We hope that this case sends out a message which will help to ensure that such events don’t happen in the future.”

'No fine can replace a mum’s life'

Mrs Barritt first came to live at the care home on 25 July 2012, as a result of her advancing dementia.

David and Anthony Barritt, her sons said: “The last four years have been very hard for the family, coming to terms with the tragic circumstances of mum’s death from hypothermia.

“It is hard to believe that an elderly lady with dementia could be treated in such an appalling way in a care home that claimed to specialise in the care of such vulnerable people.

“A fine, no matter how large, could ever replace a loved one; what price can you put on your mother’s life?

“We can only hope that mother’s sad and unnecessary death may be served to improve standards at Maria Mallaband Care Group’s care homes and god willing prevent such a tragic event from ever happening again.”

MMCG pleaded guilty on 17 June to breaching health and safety regulations at Harrogate Magistrates’ Court.

In a statement MMGG stated: ”The Maria Mallaband Care Group would like to express again our deepest sympathies to the family of Mrs Barritt.

“They trusted us to look after their loved one and we failed, and for this we are very sorry.

“At the time of Mrs Barritt's death, now nearly four years ago, we carried out our own investigation and a number of actions were taken at the time. Oaklands is currently rated Good by CQC.”

An unannounced inspection on 3 February this year by the Care Quality Commission rated the care home as ‘Good’ in its report published on 16 April.

In the report, CQC inspectors said: “All parts of the building were well maintained and the environment was warm.

“There were also regular safety checks carried out by a maintenance person. These included regular checks of bedrails, room temperatures.”