Prevention of Future Deaths reports · 2014

Alois Piska

Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths, reference 2014-0553, written 23 Dec 2014. A coroner writes one of these when an inquest reveals a risk that could cause further deaths unless something changes.

Date of report23 Dec 2014
Reference2014-0553
DeceasedAlois Piska
CoronerDavid Horsley
Coroner areaPortsmouth & South East Hampshire
CategoryCare Home Health related deaths
Sourcejudiciary.uk record · original PDF
Responses published1

The report

Text recovered by OCR from a scanned PDF. OCR is imperfect: check anything you rely on against the source PDF. Reproduced verbatim, including the scan's own layout.

ANNEX A

REGULATION 28: REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS

NOTE: This form is to be used after an inquest.

REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS

THIS REPORT IS BEING SENT TO:
1. MrM. Parish
Chief Executive, Care UK
Connaught House
Colchester Business Park
Colchester CO4 9QB

Manager

Harry Sotnick House
Cranleigh Avenue
Buckland
Portsmouth PO1 5LU

Head of Adult Social Care
Portsmouth City Council
Civic Offices

Portsmouth PO1 2AL

1 | CORONER

| am David Clark Horsley, senior coroner for the coroner area of Portsmouth and South
East Hampshire.

2 | CORONER’S LEGAL POWERS

| make this report under paragraph 7, Schedule 5, of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
and regulations 28 and 29 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013.

3 | INVESTIGATION and INQUEST

On 3” June 2014 I commenced an investigation into the death of Alois Piska, aged 94.
The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 17" October 2014. The
conclusion of the inquest was that Mr Piska's medical cause of death was:
- la: Subdural Haematoma
- Ib: Head Injury
- Ik Bronchopneumonia, Ischaemic Heart Disease
and that he had died due to an Accident.

4 | CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH

On 29" May 2014 Alois Piska was admitted to Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth,
having fallen earlier that day in the lounge of the nursing home where he was a resident.
No member of staff was present in the lounge when he fell. At the hospital he was
diagnosed as having sustained a non-survivable head injury in the fall. He died
peacefully at the hospital at 18.20 hours on 31° May 2014.

CORONER’S CONCERNS

During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern. In
my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken. In the
circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.

The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows. —

There were inadequate numbers of staff at Harry Sotnick House to supervise residents
in communal areas at all times when such areas are in use.

ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and | believe you have the
power to take such action.

YOUR RESPONSE

You are under a duty to respond to this report within 56 days of the date of this report,
namely by 17" February 2015. |, the coroner, may extend the period.

Your response must contain details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out
the timetable for action. Otherwise you must explain why no action is proposed.

COPIES and PUBLICATION

| have sent a copy of my report to the Chief Coroner and to Mr Piska's son and
daughter.

lam also under a duty to send the Chief Coroner a copy of your response.

The Chief Coroner may publish either or both in a complete or redacted or summary
form. He may send a copy of this report to any person who he believes may find it useful
or of interest. You may make representations to me, the coroner, at the time of your
response, about the release or the publication of your response by the Chief Coroner.

23 December 2014

Responses

1 response published against this report on judiciary.uk. A response is a body's written reply to the coroner's concerns; publication is at the discretion of the Chief Coroner's office, so an absent response does not mean nobody replied.

Response from Care UK (PDF)
Cofe &

Mr David Horsley Care UK Community Partnerships
, Limited

Coroner s Office Hawker House

The Guildhall 5-6 Napier Court

Guildhall Square Napier Road

Portsmouth RG1 SEW

www.careuk.com

RECEIVED
13 FEB 2015

|
BY H.M CORONER

12 February 2015

Dear Mr Horsley

Coroner’s Report to Prevent Future Deaths — Mr Alois PISKA (Date of Death: 31
May 2014)

| write to address your concerns highlighted in the Regulation 28 report dated 23
December 2014.

The matters addressed in the Report state that your concerns are, “that there were
inadequate numbers of staff at Harry Sotnick House to supervise residents in
communal areas at all times when such areas are in use.”

To address your queries | have reviewed our internal records and guidelines and will
explain each in turn:

1. Staff Rota for 29 May 2014 when Mr Piska suffered a fall

On the 29" May | can confirm that the occupancy of the unit in question was 15
residents. The staff deployed to support these residents were: 1 Registered Nurse and
5 care staff which is a ratio of 1 member of staff to 2.5 residents.

The industry average advises that there should be one member of staff for every 4
residents. CAPE (“Caring About People Everyday”) is an industry tool used to assess
the nursing requirements for patients. The tables below show a comparison of nursing
hours provided by Care UK in comparison with the recommended guidelines.

Care UK Community Partnerships Limited. Registered in England No 02644862
Registered Office: Connaught House, 850 The Crescent, Colchester Business Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 908

Table 1: Average hours of nursing recommended by the RCN (“Royal College of
Nursing”).

CAPE Dependency Range RCNNI |
Need Hours

0 8 Self Caring 1.0 |

9 17 Low 2.0 |

18 26 Medium 3.0 |

27 36 High 4.0 |

Table 2: Average hours of nursing recommended and used by Care UK.

Need
Self Caring |

Low
Medium
High

Therefore, for the date in question, the unit was in fact over- staffed if compared to the
industry average.

2. Particular care needs for residents

Staff are deployed in the unit based on the identified needs of the residents. We do
advocate that when clients are sat in communal areas there is a member of staff to
support them. Due to the unpredictability and the nature of the Dementia disease it is
extremely difficult to anticipate when a client may attempt to mobilise and
subsequently have a fall in any area of the home, be it a communal area or their room.

Risk assessments for falls are completed on every resident in the home and updated
monthly. These assessments consider gender, age, falls history, sensory deficits,
medication, medical history, mobility and gait. The assessment scores a risk and puts
them into a high, medium or low category. Depending on the category, then depends
on the care and the support that they are provided with e.g review medication,
physiotherapy, opticians, etc. Mr Piska was classified ‘low’ as it was indicated in the
plan of care that he was not mobile.

Staff members are trained not to catch residents if they fall. This is to prevent injury to
both resident and staff member. Therefore, even if a member of staff was present
when Mr Piska fell, they would not have been able to prevent him from falling.

On the 29" May it is my view that there were appropriate numbers of staff in the unit in
question to meet the needs of the residents at that time

| hope you find the response acceptable. Please do not hesitate to request further
information should this be required.

Page 2 of 3

Yours sincerely.

Group Legal Director

Page 3 of 3

Related reports

Other reports by David Horsley

See all →

More reports categorised “Care Home Health related deaths”

See all →

Track Care Home Health related deaths

See every Prevention of Future Deaths report matching Care Home Health related deaths, and how often a new one appears.

What would an alert for this have sent me? Search the full text

Free to try — the preview shows the real matches and how many arrived in the last 12 months. Your first email alert is free.

These reports are published by the Chief Coroner's office at judiciary.uk and are © Crown copyright. The text here is reproduced from the published PDF so it can be searched. If something on this page is wrong, or you are a person named in it and want it reviewed, email drcjar@gmail.com and we will act promptly.