A CARE home and a GP practice have been criticised by a sheriff after an 87-year-old woman died with bed sores which had rotted to the bone.
Jamesina MacKenzie, a retired veterinary surgeon, had been a resident at Wyvis House in Dingwall for a few months, but she died in Invergordon's county community hospital on May 31, 2009.
In his determination following a fatal accident inquiry into her death, Sheriff Alistair MacFadyen said: "In the midst of apparent misunderstandings and inadequate management and supervision of her care, her deterioration was not properly recognised or addressed by the care home or the general practice until it was too late."
He recorded that Dr Miles Mack, a GP in the Dingwall Medical Group, had examined Miss MacKenzie on April 30, had seen the pressure ulcers, and Dr Mack had noted "Very nasty. This was a significant case to be called out to."
But the sheriff said: "Dr Mack took no steps to follow up after this visit."
Wyvis House was bought by RDS Healthcare Limited in March 2009. By early April 2009 there had been complaints to various bodies, including the Care Commission.
In a statement, Dingwall Medical Group said: "We are sorry for any suffering endured by the late Miss Mackenzie."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article