Rick loved to sing with his son Kevin, and enjoyed anything from Roger Whittaker to Vera Lynn
By Rowenna Hoskin
BBC News
An 88-year-old man with dementia was given 10 times his usual dosage of medication two times a day for a week in July 2022, his family has claimed.
John Collinson, known as Rick, lay “comatose” at the Kinmel Lodge Dementia Home in Kinmel Bay, Conwy, developing bedsores for a week, his children said.
He died in hospital on 30 August, 2022.
Kinmel Lodge said its “thoughts and sympathies” were with his family but “cannot comment further” ahead of a forthcoming coroner’s inquest.
It added: “The management and staff of Kinmel Lodge have been deeply saddened to learn of the death of our former resident, Mr Collinson, who sadly died some six weeks after being moved from Kinmel Lodge care home to an alternative residence.”
The date for the inquest, which will determine the cause of death, is yet to be fixed.
One week Rick was dancing at the late Queen’s jubilee celebrations at the care home, the next he was “bedridden,” his family said.
Rick, a grandfather of 10 children and great-grandfather of 12, often walked with son Kevin along the seafront.
Then one day, Kevin Collinson noticed he was unresponsive and “incapacitated” and said he told staff he believed the drugs were to blame.
He was told this repeatedly this was not the case, he said.
Kevin said a week later he received an email from someone at the care home who informed them that the care home had overdosed him “with an anti-psychotic drug”.
Kevin’s sister Rhian Collinson said: “In the time dad had been bedridden, he had developed the most awful bedsore. Dad’s heel was the size of a boiled egg.
“Subsequently the bedsore was actually what finished my dad off. For the next eight weeks he couldn’t walk, it was septic.”
A bedsore develops when blood supply to the skin is cut off for more than two to three hours. If left untreated it can lead to blood poisoning.
Image source, Kevin Collinson
Rick developed a bedsore on his heel the size of a “hard boiled egg” says Rhian
Kevin said he had been “a raving fan of Kinmel Lodge, especially through the lockdown” but “then standards properly slipped” and they “started to lose a lot of staff”.
One week when Rhian came to visit, the siblings got Rick out of the bed and into a chair, which they say was not a pressure-sensitive mattress as it should have been if a patient was bedbound.
He said he did not want to leave his father still in the chair and stayed until a member of staff came to put Rick to bed. That did not happen until just before midnight, Kevin said.
Rick had been left for “eight to 10 hours” in the chair, his son said, and it took staff “four hours” to get him into bed.
Kevin said there were two members of staff at the time – one upstairs and one downstairs.
Image source, Rhian Collinson
Rick’s children Kevin, Rhian and Kathy have been excluded from council communications surrounding his death, they say
Kevin offered to help but he said the staff member refused as Kevin was not hoist trained, and the other member of staff was busy.
Kevin said he did not blame the individual staff members because “when you’re under intense pressure, we can make mistakes” and believes the responsibility laid with the owners of the business.
The family moved Rick to Llys Elian in Colwyn Bay and Rhian said they were “grateful” for their help.
However, Rick’s health deteriorated and he had to be moved to a hospital. Conwy council, which runs Llys Elian, refused to comment.
The family have been in contact with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW), Conwy council, North Wales Police and Denbighshire Coroner’s Court.
“Fundamentally, so far every one of those parties has been a bit of a joke,” said Kevin.
“There are so many cracks in this system. The bit that grinds is the fact that nobody seems to care about connecting the relevant bodies, and ensuring it doesn’t happen again.”
Image source, Rhian Collinson
Kevin says his dad was “much loved” by the whole family
The family said they were excluded from discussions about the case with Conwy council for almost seven months after Rick’s death.
In a call between the family to the council on 24 March, the family were included in a conversation about the case.
The council agreed this call could be recorded and BBC Wales has heard that none of the four key people involved in managing the case had seen a photo of Rick’s bedsore.
They said the council was first notified about the overdose on 18 July 2022.
“In theory, under the Wales safeguarding procedures, they [Kinmel Lodge] have a duty of care to report immediately so we should have been told within the first 24 hours of them finding out,” the council said in the call.
Kevin said in the call that by those rules the council should have been notified on 7 July, as this was when he received an email from a staff member at the home saying: “Please can you call me asap. There has been a medication error issued to dad”.
Yet the council were not aware of it for another 11 days.
Image source, Google Maps
Rick was under the care of Kinmel Lodge for two years
The council said in the call it did not have the power to shut Kinmel Lodge down and that would be up to CIW, it added.
Officials did say they had the power to decommission it, a process which involves removing or replacing the service.
The council was unable to provide an answer to the question why the home had not been decommissioned, saying only that CIW could take action to close a home.
Kinmel Lodge said: “Any public comment or speculation could be deemed prejudicial to these proceedings [the inquest] and it would be wrong of us, or anyone else, to make any conjectures on this until such time as the inquest is concluded.
“We continue to be committed to providing the very best care to all our residents at Kinmel Lodge and would be happy to talk to any resident or family member who has any concerns about any public comments.”
CIW said Kinmel Lodge was subject to its “enforcement process therefore it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time”.
It added that local authorities were “responsible for safeguarding investigations where a person may have suffered harm” but it would “always take action where we find evidence that a provider has not complied with the regulations for providing a care home service”.
Denbighshire Coroner’s Court, North Wales Police and Conwy council all declined to comment.
