Residents in a nursing home where a war veteran died just ten days after moving in were unshaven with unwashed hair and long finger nails, an inquest was told.
Leslie Vines died after moving into the Maypole Nursing Home, in Kings Heath, in September 2002.
The 77-year-old was assessed at Heartlands Hospital and then moved into the nursing home which cared for elderly and mentally ill patients.
Lynette Ranson, who is a care home inspector for the Care Quality Commission (formerly the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC), said there was no record at the home which stated how Mr Vines occupied his time there.
“He (Mr Vines) was unfamiliar with the home and there was nothing about him saying how he occupied his time,” she told the jury at Sutton Town Hall. “It was difficult to see how he was been meaningfully occupied particularly with the low levels of staff there.”
A total of 27 people died at the home in 2002, against just eight in 2001. Mrs Ranson visited the home in February 2003 after previous visits from other colleagues had raised some serious concerns.
“On the visit I found that the residents had long finger nails and un-washed hair,” she said.
“The men were unshaven and all the residents were either slumped in chairs or wandering around.
Mr Vines, of Cranmore Road, Shirley, was discharged from Heartlands Hospital on August 27, 2002 and died on September 9.
The inquest had earlier heard Mr Vines’s family say he went to live at the Maypole home because two other suitable facilities were either too far away or had younger residents.
The home was closed down in 2003.
