A CORONER has today criticised the management of a care home where a bedside table was overrun with ants and a room strewn with human faeces.

Those were among the shocking details heard at inquests into the deaths of three residents of Sowerby House.

North Yorkshire Police and the Care Quality Care Commission (CQC) launched a joint investigation following the deaths of Albert Pooley, 89, James Metcalfe, 85, and Harry Kilvington, 85, last year.

Although no criminal action was taken, the home in the villlage of Sowerby, near Thirsk, was subsequently placed in special measures by the CQC whilst Sowerby House downgraded itself to stop providing nursing care.

At the Northallerton inquests today coroner Michael Oakley recorded a narrative verdict over the deaths of all three men.

He said: "Whilst the standard of care afforded to the deceased whilst at Sowerby House was below the standard expected of a nursing home, (they) died from natural causes."

Mr Oakley criticised the management of the care home, but stopped short of making any recommendations, due to the ongoing CQC investigation.

The Northern Echo:

James Metcalfe, left, and Harry Kilvington. Pictures: Ben Lack

On Wednesday, agency nurse Kristina Parsons described seeing a resident’s bedside table covered in ants and Mr Pooley’s room soiled with faeces when she started a shift at the home last April.

She said that although she was due to complete an eight-hour shift at Sowerby House on April 25, she only lasted half that time because she feared for her reputation as a nurse if she stayed any longer.

“There was a man sat on the edge of his bed eating his breakfast with the bedside table crawling with ants. It was not just ten or 15 of them, there were hundreds of them.”

Ms Parsons also described seeing faeces ‘all over’ the commode and strewn across the floor of the room vacated by Mr Pooley, who had been admitted to hospital earlier that morning.

“I was disgusted,” she said.

Under questioning, the then manager of Sowerby House, Joanne King, said someone was called to deal with the ants but admitted there was ‘no excuse’ for the excrement to have been left by the night staff.

District nurse Penelope Hutchinson, who works as a community sister based at the Friary Hospital, Richmond, had direct contact with Mr Metcalfe shortly before his death.

She visited the home in July with a colleague after hearing concerns about the standard of care.

She described finding Mr Metcalfe with chapped lips and sitting in his own urine and excrement.

"I rang for his carer to come in and they agreed they had not seen him for four and a half hours.” 

After cleaning Mr Metcalfe up, she raised her concerns with Ms King, telling her the situation was “totally unacceptable”.

Pathology reports into the deaths of the three men noted all had a combination of serious ailments.

Mr Pooley, a former lorry driver from Thirsk, ultimately died from pneumonia on May 1 and Mr Metcalfe died on July 17 of heart failure.

Mr Kilvington died from sepsis on November 15 and graphic details were given about an infected ulcer on his foot that turned gangrenous during his time at Sowerby House.

Due to the home being downgraded, Mr Kilvington was transferred to Southwoods Nursing Home in Northallerton and its manager Pamela Jackson went to visit him in Sowerby before the transfer.

She said there was a strong smell of urine in the home and noted Mr Kilvington’s care plan was not very detailed and he did not have the recommended airflow mattress on his bed.

“There was a very, very pungent smell; it is a smell you never forget, it is gangrene.”

Mr Kilvington, who also suffered from conditions including diabetes and asthma, died within four days of his transfer to Southwoods.

Sowerby Home is now under new management and senior carer Paul Kelsey told the inquest conditions had dramatically improved.

Medical evidence did not prove neglect was a contributory factor in the deaths of the three men.