Woman, 88, received ‘unacceptable’ care at home

AN 88-year-old woman was not adequately fed and hydrated while receiving “unacceptable” care at a Mullingar nursing home, the Ombudsman has found.

Emily O’Reilly said the care which a woman received in April 2006 at St Mary’s Care Centre in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, was unacceptable and “far from what she could reasonably have expected”.

The Ombudsman said the home failed to meet the patient’s need for adequate food, fluids and appropriate care of vulnerable areas of skin, as when her daughter took her home after three days, the patient was found to have pressure sores and blisters which had not been there on admission.