Omagh family demands probe into nursing home’s treatment of elderly mother

THE daughter of an elderly Omagh woman has called for an investigation into the treatment of her mother during a 10-month stay in a Co Down nursing home.

Margaret Hunter (86), herself a daughter of the poet Frank McCrory and niece of the late renowned writer and broadcaster, Benedict Kiely, was finally returned to a care facility in her native town on Wednesday.

Her family had to pay £400 to hire an ambulance to take her on the 70-mile trip back to her native area.

Now her daughter, Anne, has lodged a formal complaint about what she claims was the treatment that her mother received.

She has told the UlsterHerald about the impact that the situation has had on the family.

“She lost the power of her speech initially and wasn’t able to verbalise her desire to move to Omagh. When her speech returned, she was very clear that this is what she wanted to do. But we are annoyed at what we feel was the failure of social services to address both her and our desire for my mother to be placed in Omagh.

“My mother had been in the home since June 2 last year after suffering a stroke,” she said.

“We requested her to be moved to Omagh, but we were told there were no beds. I subsequently phoned a nursing home here and discovered that there was in fact a bed available that she could have been placed in. Recently, I tried to get her moved as she was a lot brighter and said she wanted to come to Omagh as she was unhappy with some of the care in the home.

“This has been going on since last June. Everything has been such a trial and so tough.”

Anne wants an investigation into the treatment of her mother, and says she intends raising serious questions about the behaviour of social services and how they perform their duties.

“We’ve had to pay for the ambulance out of our own pockets, and we’re very grateful to the Western Ambulance Services in Castlederg for helping us.”

In a statement, the South Eastern Trust said it was made aware of allegations and these were followed up. But they said there was no evidence of any ‘rought treatment’ which was confirmed by the resident.

In relation to concerns that Margaret Hunter was told that no place was available in a care home in Omagh, the Trust said that care home availability changes many times on a daily basis when trying to access care home beds outside the Trust area.

“Social work staff have to rely on vacancy information they are provided with. This will only be accurate at that point in time given the demand for care home beds,” the spokesperson added.