Scotland News
Linda WatsonA woman who received a £10,000 payout from a nursing home says she is haunted by the “horrific” standard of care given to her 93-year-old mother.
Ellen Watson, who had dementia, died 13 months after moving into Bothwell Castle Care Home in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, during the Covid pandemic.
He daughter Linda Watson told Scotland News she hoped speaking out would help “somebody somewhere” take action to ensure better standards in care homes.
Bothwell Castle Care Home apologised to Ms Watson and said her mother’s end of life care “fell short of our usual high standards”.
Linda described her mother Ellen as the “kindest person you could ever meet”.
In her early 90s she was suffering from urine infections, delirium and had broken her hip in a fall.
A hospital doctor advised Linda to consider moving her mother to a care home.
Linda chose Bothwell Castle – which markets itself as a luxury care home – and she moved in during June 2020.
The plan was to be with her mum every day, but that was impossible because of Covid restrictions in place at the time.
Ellen’s health deteriorated and in the weeks before she died district nurses visiting the home filled in an adult support and protection referral.
These are sent to social work services if it is known or believed that an adult is unable to safeguard themselves and is at risk of harm.
The referral obtained by Linda stated: “Ellen is at risk of neglect.”
The form said Ellen pulled the needle from her syringe driver – which was delivering her end of life drugs – at 21:30 on 1 July 2021 but care staff failed to contact the district nursing team to “re-site” the needle until 08:35 the next day.
Linda said her mother went without her end of life medication for 14 hours as a result, which she described as “unforgiveable”.
She said adult support and protection referrals should never be required for anyone who’s at the end of life in a nursing home.
“I can’t comprehend it,” she told Scotland. “I can never get my head round that. Never.”
Figures from the Scottish government published in 2023 showed an estimated 41,569 adult support and protection referrals in Scotland in 2021/22, with 18% of those investigated in care homes.
Another of Ellen’s medical records dated 3 June 2021 stated her “nutritional intake was found to be inadequate and appropriate food and fluid advice was provided to improve this”.
The Care Inspectorate upheld three out of Linda’s six complaints including that her mother did not receive palliative care and support in line with best practice and standards.
It noted that Linda had supplied photos of her mum with her eyes crusted and her tongue coated and dry.
But it said on the evidence available that staff had endeavoured to support her through periods of stress and distress.
The Care Inspectorate’s investigation also found that the service failed to respond appropriately when Ellen Watson’s family raised concerns about her palliative care.
Linda said she was “haunted” by her mum’s care.
“All that was left that I could give my mum was for her to die in peace and she didn’t,” she said.
“She just didn’t die in peace. It was horrific.
“The one thing I hope by speaking out is that somebody somewhere has the capacity to come and go ‘this can’t happen in care homes’.”
Linda WatsonLinda says some of the staff, including the hairdresser and maintenance man, were good to her mum and she’s grateful to the district nurses for highlighting their concerns about Ellen’s care.
Linda took legal action and received a £10,000 payout that she intends to donate to charity.
In a statement, Bothwell Castle Care Home denied the allegation “that the care provided to Ellen Watson was horrific”.
“Nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our residents,” a spokesperson said.
“We would again like to offer our condolences to Mrs Watson and sincere apologies that her mother’s end of life care fell short of our usual high standards.”
The statement added: “We take any complaints or concerns raised with us extremely seriously, and following Mrs Watson’s complaint, we undertook a comprehensive internal investigation and participated fully in an external investigation with the Care Inspectorate.
“Further to the investigations in 2021, the Care Inspectorate’s next visit to our home in 2022 confirmed that the required areas for improvement had been met and the complaint closed.”
The Care Inspectorate’s most recent inspection, in January 2024, judged the home to be very good or good across all areas, they said.
“Our focus remains on delivering the very best care to our residents.”
