An Aberdeen care provider has apologised after staff failed to call an ambulance for a resident who had suffered a heart attack because they “panicked”.
Robert Robertson, 80, died at the Stocket Grange sheltered housing complex on November 29 last year.
According to an investigation by Bon Accord Care, which runs the Stocket Grange site on behalf of Aberdeen City Council, a total of three staff members including a supervisor witnessed an unresponsive Mr Robertson in his standalone cottage.
None of the staff called an ambulance, which was only dispatched after Mr Robertson’s daughter called one from her home in Rosemount.
Ms Robertson was on the phone with Stocket Grange staff because she had become concerned about her father’s whereabouts when he didn’t answer her calls.
Bon Accord said staff failed to follow the correct procedure and should have called for an ambulance “immediately”.
It admitted staff “panicked” and sought assistance from colleagues instead of calling emergency services.
In another admission, Bon Accord said staff told Mr Robertson’s daughter that her father had died.
According to Ms Robertson, this happened before the ambulance arrived and while a supervisor was attempting resuscitation. She also says staff told her in an off-hand manner that her father was dead.
“Staff should not have made that judgement,” Bon Accord said about the notification of death.
“We apologise unreservedly for the insensitive and untimely way this was said to [Ms Robertson].”
Questions over standards of care
Speaking to the P&J, Ms Robertson questioned parts of the investigation and called for an improvement in Bon Accord’s standards of care.
The Aberdeen care group, which operates various types of assisted accommodation in the city including care for those at home and community meals, has been the subject of complaints in the past including accusations in January 2021 of abuse and neglect by staff at Kingswells Care Home.
In 2020, workers at Bon Accord care homes spoke out about a culture of bullying and harassment in the group, which is one of Aberdeen’s largest care providers.
Ms Robertson, 50, said: “How many other people are they doing this to? These are people that you should trust, who watched my dad basically die. I can’t forgive that.”
A Bon Accord Care spokesperson said: “First and foremost, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family. We take all complaints seriously and have conducted a full and detailed investigation.
“We have engaged with the family regarding the outcome of the investigation and have offered to meet them.
The group said it was unable to comment further “at this time.”
‘He’s lying there dying’
Ms Robertson, who is visually impaired, revealed she has been unable to sleep since her father’s death and constantly replays in her mind things she could have done to save him.
She admits her father may still have died if an ambulance was called immediately, but says his chances were limited by the actions of staff at Stocket Grange.
She will now take her complaint to the Care Inspectorate, which oversees the quality of care in Scotland.
“When he really needed the help of a service, a service that he paid for, then not just one person or two people, but every single person he dealt with day didn’t have a clue what to do.”
Mr Robertson served in the British Army and was involved in the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya where he was taken prisoner.
He spent two years in an army hospital recovering from his injuries.
Ms Robertson said her father was in good health in the week before he died, visiting the dentist to have his teeth cleaned.
She also recalled the terror she felt when trying to find out from staff at Stocket Grange the situation with her father.
“He’s lying there dying, hearing me crying on the phone,” she remembers. “So his dying moments of hearing is, my daughter’s upset, they’ve said I’m dead.”