THE EVIDENCE OF THE APPLICANTS ( BUPA SEVEN)

“ Anne Davidson from 1.4 who was doing her first on call, arrived and asked what she could do, Eileen was extremely upset and said get us some help we need more staff here, Anne said it was nothing to do with her. Eileen asked her to get a chair for Mollie, Anne brought a chair and rammed it hard into Eileens back, as Eileen was still kneeling on the floor reassuring M.C, Eileens head hit M.Cs stomach when Anne rammed the chair in her back. I said to Anne this isn’t the time or the place, leave it, she pointed her finger in my face and told me I had a big mouth, she said don’t test me, the assault on Eileen and the threats made against me were all part of the blame attached to the people that BUPA management thought had gone to Social Services, and caused as they saw it all the trouble”

“ It was a struggle to get a doctor to the residents on unit 2 and this got worse after Social Services came”

“ I went up to Social Services and gave a statement to them, while I was giving this statement to Richard Turner and Monica Handscomb, Carole Jones ( Home Manager) came looking for me and was told by Mr Turner that I may be in the building somewhere but that no one should be asked who was with them as the situation was totally confidential and no one should be shouted about or put at risk. I had this stage got very upset and was told by Mr Turner and Ms Handscomb, to sit still and have a drink and calm down. I was very distressed and felt very upset, I asked Mr Turner if our names had been given to BUPA or the office because of the reference to gossip by Carole Jones, this is what she had called the abuse we had reported to her so many times. Mr Turner assured me absolutely that no information had been passed anywhere and that it would only be passed on at any stage with our full agreement”

“ While we were doing the medication Maggie asked me to ring the office and ask for some help, I rang the office and Maria Green ( Deputy Manager) answered, I explained the situation and she just said ( and so?)”

“ I felt sadness and guilt about M having to sit in a mess because the medication had to be given out and no one was told to come and help us and when they did M was ignored and so was her distress, she wasn’t as important as the carpet in her bedroom and neither were her feelings”

“ B.F was a resident on unit 2, he had no relatives so when he died they asked for as many of the staff on unit 2, as possible to go to his funeral, on 13th of May 1999 the day of B.Fs funeral I came to work and went onto unit 2 to start my shift. Carol Newton (BUPA regional manager) followed me down and asked what time I had started, I was surprised as she had just followed me down and saw that I was just about to start, she wrote something down and then walked off”

“ Rochelle Murray from unit3 came down and asked how many of us were on the unit working, I told her there was just two of us and she left the unit. A few minutes later an agency worker came on to the unit and said Rochelle had sent her, this was very strange after everything that had happened and with unit 2 always so short of staff, I checked again with her that she had come to the right unit, we started to get ready for lunch and then Rochelle came down and was raging up and down shouting ( You have three staff now, I’m not Maria) “

“ We were never offered any help after we went to Social Services, other staff stopped talking to me and I started to get moved around all over the place, on one shift I was followed watched and reported on by Sarah Conway who went straight back to the office with anything she felt was reporting. I was followed even to the toilet and was watched from an empty bedroom while taking my break outside, she even asked me where I was when I was off duty”

“ When we got back to Isard House all the staff were saying that we had left the building without telling the office, which was a lie. Rochelle Murray came on to unit 2, screaming and shouting that we were in big trouble, she stood in the kitchen door and shouted at Renee and Eileen, saying ( I know what you did to Maria but I’m a different kettle of fish don’t mess with me) the residents were very upset D.H was crying S.S locked herself in the toilet and Jenny the Cleaner was knocking into everyone with the Hoover. Linda Clark was feeding A.C in the lounge when Jenny ( Cleaner) went in they were banging around everywhere with the Hoover”

“ When the office staff told the other care staff that some of us from unit 2 had gone to Social Services the other care staff became very hostile towards us, they had worked out who it was because we had all complained before to Carole Jones”

“ Jenny the cleaner was throwing the Hoover around the lounge in a real temper, it ended up smashing into my legs and just missing a resident A.Cs legs by a fraction, she then left and I was in tears by this time, I realise now that the residents we had looked after and who relied on us for physical and emotional support were not safe and were likely to suffer because we had gone to Social Services. It was counter productive hatred was being stirred up and we were being threatened and attacked with no one to turn to for help, I feel very sad that we all had to leave our residents behind but just our being their put our residents at risk because of the way we were treated by management and staff, we had been treated very badly simply for speaking out against abuse, when I came home that night I spoke to my husband and told him what had happened, he had been out of work for a few weeks but I couldn’t take it any more, no wonder abuse is very rarely if ever brought out into the open in a care situation, you end up getting abused yourself"

“ From the 19th of April to the 13th of May 1999, I was doing my best for the residents in the end I couldn’t stand the staff from the other units especially Rochelle Murray and Dee Verrals screaming and shouting at me in front of the residents because it upset them and they would start crying, this happened twice, once with each of them”

“ Dee kept screaming at me she had enough of you lot, all I wanted to do was stop residents being abused by some staff”

“ Things got so bad that I couldn’t sleep or eat worrying about what the next day would bring, my doctor recommended that I take sick leave as the stress was making me ill”

“ Early May 1999, I came on duty one morning and it was reported to me that M.B was not well, she was very confused and her co-ordination was bad, I was very concerned and reported it to the duty officer Maria Green ( Deputy) I asked for a doctor to be called. I never seen M.B like this and was very worried, the other member of staff Anne Evens did say to me that a doctor was called by Eileen about two days earlier and Ann could not understand why the G.P never came as Anne had been there when Eileen Called for the G.P”

“ During the four weeks after we went to Social Services I suffered a number of incidents of harassment and abuse, for example I telephoned the doctor for M.B during this call M.Bs daughter in law arrived, the surgery called back and Carole Jones (Manager) rang me and asked me whether I thought M.B really needed a doctor, I said I thought she did and she told me that she would decide when a doctor was needed, the doctor never came”

“ The doctor came into the room she examined M.B and then went to call for an ambulance, the doctor was puzzled and said ( it was lucky she happened to be in the area, she had a message from the surgery that there had been a call from Isard House requesting a doctor but that it was not an emergency and could wait until tomorrow”

“ A doctor came to see M.B the next day and she was admitted to hospital, she died a week later”

“ On about the 22 or 23rd of April I was feeding residents in unit 2 lounge and Eileen was working in the kitchen, I could see Eileen through the serving hatch and a new girl Sandra came into the kitchen and said to Eileen ( I have just come from the office and heard Linda Blackman ( Secretary) telling Sarah Conway that the staff on unit 2 had reported the abuse to Social Services) I remember looking at Eileen and saying that our lives would be made hell now everybody knows, we were so shocked that this information could be spread when it was supposed to be confidential”

“ Maggie and I were both very upset the residents could see how upset we were and I felt bad as not only were BUPA victimising us but also making the residents suffer”

“ My world has been turned up side down because I spoke out about abuse I am eaten away with guilt, I can not turn off the pain its there all the time”

“ Again I felt that management were getting at me through the residents, I felt very angry about this and I am the one that has to live with the knowledge that I could not help B.F at all, they did not give me the time to see to his needs in any way”

“ We were being constantly left short of staff on unit 2, and this definitely got worse after Eileen went to Carole Jones ( Manager) Carole then moved me around and put in agency staff on the unit in my place”

“ There were often times when I would break out into hysterical laughter and then tears just because I was so exhausted, I don’t know how I drove home some nights”
“ She spoke to my husband demanding to know where I was and why I was not in work yet, my husband explained that I had booked leave, Barbara then snapped back ( No she hasn’t, nothings in the book)”

“ I took up smoking again despite the fact that I had given up about three or four years ago, I felt that I was on verge of a complete breakdown”

“ I can not believe that BUPA can put all these old people at risk, I still feel very upset about it and I think BUPA should be ashamed of themselves”

“ Working conditions became awful I just wanted to go home, Carole Jones ( Manager) would just glare at me as she went past, I began to feel sick and could not sleep, I was made to feel that I had done something wrong”

“ After I returned to work Carol Newton ( BUPA Regional Manager) asked to see me upstairs and I took a witness Linda Clark, I was concerned that there would not be enough staff on my unit as Renee was due to go home, Carole Newton just said Renee will have to stay, I repeated my concerns about our safety, Claire Porter ( BUPA Human Resources) was there too”

“ Carole Newton then barred my way when I tried to take a resident to the toilet, another resident S.S nearly lost her balance because Carole Newton barred my way and would not let me get to her. I eventually locked myself in A.Cs bedroom, Maggie Roffy was in there, Carole Newton was trying to open the door, Maggie gave me her mobile and I called Social Services, I spoke to Monica Handscomb who said they would be there as soon as possible, eventually at tea time Monica Hondscomb and Mr Turner arrived.
I went into the conference room with Carole Newton< Mr Turner and Ms Handscomb, Carol Newton said that there was no need to have gone to Social Services as I could have told her, I said that I had requested a meeting with BUPA but Carole Jones ( Home Manager) had refused and I had no direct contact with BUPA or Carole Newton. Carole Newton said that she came to the home once a month, I said that I had only ever seen her once in the office and there were staff in the home, who had never set eyes on her. I told Mr Turner and Ms Handscomb about what had been happening and how I was being harassed so much that I couldn’t do my job, Monica explained to Carole Newton that I had no choice but to go to Social Services because I had tried reporting it to the home and nothing happened, Carole Newton then asked if Carole Jones had known about the problems and what it was, I checked with Mr Turner that it was alright to talk about it and then told Carole Newton about the abuse we were suffering after making the reports to Carole Jones and then going to Social Services, when I had finished explaining this Carole Newton said to Mr Turner, that she needed to phone Des Kelly, she left the room for about twenty minutes, when she returned Monica said that she didn’t think I was in a fit state to carry on working after all this upset. Carole Newton agreed she asked me if I had a communication problem with Carole Jones, I said I had good communication with her that residents had died because of it, she asked me what I meant and I said I had begged Carole Jones to sort things out for the residents such as D.H who might not have died had she dealt with the abuse, she seemed shocked by this and she asked me what I meant and I told her if I had spent less time communication with Carole Jones I could have gone and got help ages ago, I then told her about the abuse and how I had reported it and then told her the harassment those staff had been subjected to, this took about two hours and it was about 7.30pm, I asked her if the staff would be safe and she assured me it would be alright so I said I would go home in a little while as talking about the abuse had made me cry a lot and didn’t want to go down stairs with red eyes. I sat in the room for a while and then rang down to Maggie to bring my coat and bag and told her it would be safe now”

“ Richard Turner rung me at home later and said Des Kelly could meet us the next day I asked if the staff would be covered at Isard Hs and he said Des Kelly could not sort that out, I spent the next two hours on the phone trying to swap shifts around, I rang B. Penfold the on call officer about this at 10pm, before I could go any further she started shouting ( IM sick of your and your bloody Social Services) and put the phone down, I started crying I was so exhausted mentally and physically”

“ We met with Des Kelly ( BUPA Director) on the 14th of May 1999, at Durham Hs.
Richard Turner was also present, we picked four residents to tell Mr Kelly about in order to illustrate the abuse. We wanted to make sure that he understood the full extent of the abuse, I told him everything that had been done to those residents and he appeared to be really shocked, I was really convinced at this point that he understood, I then went on to tell him about Carole Jones and how many times I had reported abuse. We also told him about the harassment we had been subjected to since we reported the abuse to Social Services. We prepared a flip chart for him so that he understood what we were saying, one chart had the names of all the staff at Isard and what unit they worked on, we put coloured stickers on the names of the staff that were involved in the abuse or were involved in the harassment that we suffered since we went to Social Services. Mr Kelly seemed to find the chart helpful and he took it away with him after the meeting, we were sure that some action would be taken, we had also set out on the chart all the changes that we thought were needed at Isard Hs and we discussed this at length. Mr Kelly then said I accept full responsibility for what has happened to the residents and also for what has happened to you, he then turned to Mr Turner and said he would do something about it, he said he would get in touch with us again and arrange another group meeting when he had dealt with our concerns, he said he thought we should stay out of work until he had dealt with it"