Nursing home adopts bed sore policy

THE nursing home where an elderly woman developed bed sores from which she subsequently died is to refer all future bed sore cases to accident and emergency.

Leas Cross Nursing Home said the new policy would not necessarily benefit patients but was essential to protect the reputation of the facility and its staff after it received negative publicity from reports of a coroner’s court hearing. The move follows the inquest on Wednesday into the death of 73-year-old Dorothy Black at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where her family had her admitted after discovering she had developed severe bed sores during a nine-week stay at Leas Cross in late 2003.

Ms Black, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and was in a wheelchair, was brought to the nursing home for respite care but one of her daughters told the inquest her mother’s health deteriorated during her stay, her flesh was rotting and smelling and the family had to insist on her admission to hospital.