Caroline Taylforth has been fined £40,000 after pleading guilty to two offences of failing to provide safe care and treatment to two residents at Rossendale Nursing Home in Lancashire, following a sentencing hearing at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court today (Wednesday 5 April).
CQC has prosecuted Caroline, who was the registered manager at Rossendale Nursing Home at the time of the incidents, after mistakes she admitted meant two residents, did not receive safe care and treatment resulting in avoidable harm while in her care.
The first offence is for failures in Patricia Sutton’s care. Patricia was admitted to the home on 11 October 2018 and had a significant medical history. On 6 November 2019, Patricia was eating dinner in the dining room and started choking. She was taken to hospital and sadly died later that day.
Prior to this, Patricia had been involved in three other choking incidents, and should have been referred to a speech and language therapist after the second one occurred, in order to properly assess the risks. However, Caroline did not safely assess, monitor or manage the risk or make this referral.
Additionally, a referral was made to a dietician, who requested further information within two weeks of a letter dated 31 July 2019. There was no evidence that Caroline provided this information, and the referral was subsequently closed.
CQC also prosecuted Caroline for another incident concerning Dereck John Chapman (known as John), who was admitted to the home on 22 October 2019 with a number of health issues and was also prone to having falls.
On 13 January 2020 John had a fall in the dining room at the home. At 3.00am the next morning a motion sensor showed that John had left his bed and he was found on the floor. Later that morning he was taken to hospital and was diagnosed as having a fractured left neck of femur. A few days later his condition deteriorated, and he sadly died on 3 February 2020. The fall and subsequent injury contributed to his death.
Following admission to the home, John suffered at least 14 falls. Caroline failed to mitigate the risk of falls and failed to ensure John was promptly referred to appropriate services, such as the falls team, GP and local authority, following known incidents, particularly those resulting in injuries.
Caroline, as the registered manager of the home, was required to maintain oversight of people’s care, and ensure people’s care records were accurate and up to date, as well as any appropriate referrals made to ensure people were receiving safe care and treatment. In these cases, this did not happen.
Caroline was also ordered to pay a £181 victim surcharge and £15,000 costs to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which brought this prosecution.
Alison Chilton, CQC deputy director of operations for the north, said:
“Patricia and John were seriously let down by the care they received from Caroline Taylforth at Rossendale Nursing Home, which sadly led to their deaths.
“Caroline failed in her duty as registered manager to protect Patricia and John from an avoidable risk of harm in a place they should have been safe and receiving the best possible care to meet their individual needs.
“This fine is not representative of the value of their lives, but this, and the prosecution reminds all care providers they must always ensure people’s safety and manage risks to their wellbeing.
“The majority of care providers do an excellent job but when they don’t, we can and will take action to hold them to account and protect people.”
Notes to editors
Information about regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 is available on our website.
Regulation 22 made it a criminal offence for a healthcare provider to fail to comply with Regulation 12.