July 15, 2016A care home has admitted safety breaches after a resident, who had severe dementia, died after falling from a fire escape staircase, in November 2012.
George Chicken, 76, wandered through a first floor fire escape door at Rose Court Lodge in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. He died in hospital 48 hours later.
The court heard how Mr Chicken, who had undergone hip and knee replacements, was often confused, anxious and unsteady, and was known to wander around the home and had previously pushed open fire exit doors to get out.
Mr Chicken’s daughter, Valerie Clowes said outside court: “To think all it would have taken to save my dad’s life was a £5 thumb screw for the door he went thorough or a £20 child gate on his bedroom door.”
Bernard Thorogood, representing Mansfield District Council said it was obviously unsafe to have to have a set of concrete stairs accessible to residents, not locked: “Just push the bar and through they go” he said.
Embrace All Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure residents were not exposed to risks to health and safety.
Manager Amanda Dean of Ambergate, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonable care of persons affected by her work.
Two other charges against Dean were dropped.
The defendants will be sentenced in September.
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I don’t know the intricacies of this case but Bernard Thorogood’s statement that it was obviously unsafe to have to have a set of concrete stairs accessible to residents, not locked: “Just push the bar and through they go” – Isn’t that the way that fire doors/escapes are supposed to work?
Precisely! There will always however have to be a balance between the need to escape quickly and the safety of confused residents. Most care homes will have an alarm system on exit doors to alert the staff. Alternatively there are devices such as Redlam bolts that can be used to secure fire doors.
Maybe an alarm would not have helped in this instance but securing the door most certainly would have saved this man’s life.
I have to agree. Again without fully understanding all the details, however in my head I believe that in the event of a fire all residents would need to have access to a fully operational fire exit and stairs. If a fire were to occur and residents weren’t able to escape due to them being prevented from doing so, I imagine would be a greater failure of reasonable care. Obviously good quality risk assessments considering residents needs and abilities should be in place.
You can also have fire doors fastened with a bolt that is held in place with a glass tube. To open the door requires smashing the glass tube. This “may” be enough to deter someone, even with dementia, from opening that door.
Agree with Steven Morris.
This is a no-win situation. Locking the upper fire exit door with a thumb screw lock is not acceptable and should have “push to open” bars/locks. It would have been safer to move the gentleman to a ground floor room, thus removing the risk of falling down the stairs. There would, however, need to be a secure area for the residents to go, otherwise they could wander off down the street.
I would suggest Bernard Thorogood, representing Mansfield District Council, checks on the fire escape regulations before making glib statements.
Sympathies to Mr Chickens family.
I agree with Steven’s comments. The property’s fire risk assessment will indicate that fire exits are kept free from obstructions and operate easily. If there are any issues relating to a person’s mental state, they need a specific management plan and PEEP. Don’t go prosecuting the owner for following the FRA.
Thank you for all of the comments. The full text from Mr Thorogood, for reference is:
Mr Thorogood, representing Mansfield District Council, had said it was obviously unsafe to have a set of concrete stairs accessible to residents, not locked, “just push the bar and through they go”.
“Especially a stairwell with no handrail. It was not and had not been, for sometime, illuminated. If it was illuminated, with two handrails and soft carpeting, you may think the risks of somebody tumbling down were obvious, in fact. Other staircases were in a less stark condition but still they represented, from that first floor, real risks.”
As reported by the Nottingham Post.
Many thanks.
MY mum is in a dementia care home and The Fire Risk Assessment states that the residents stay on their floor and the carers assist them down the stairs. There are stair rescue chairs on the top of the stairs as a large amount of the residents would not be able to manage the stairs.
The fire exit is a break bolt, they can not be left to be opened with the push bar as the residents walk around trying all of the doors.
The care home are not allowed to put a baby gate on the residents doors as it is classed as restricting their movement and that is illegal.
Most of the residents in the care home do not have the capacity to know what is safe and unsafe so the care home goes to the courts and gets their permission to limit their movement and to stop them leaving the building for their own safety. For this reason even the ground floor fire doors have break bolt locks on them.
Now with more of the statement coming to light, things are a bit clearer. It’s pretty much core to health and safety. We all have our perceptions of where the fault lies but we can’t make that call unless we are fully aware of the facts. My deepest sympathy for the family.