Nursing home's mysterious deaths

Dr Gopal and his wife Dr Lakshmi were struck off

Real Story has uncovered new evidence about serious failings at a care home where 27 out of 31 residents died in mysterious circumstances in one year.

The Maypole Nursing home in Birmingham was run and owned by two doctors, Dr Hari Gopal and his wife Dr Pratury Lakshmi, who were also GPs for the residents.

Although bronchial pneumonia was given as the primary cause of death in 80% of the deaths, a GMC hearing ruled there was no evidence to support this in the cases they examined.

The doctors' failings were described as "inexcusable" and they were struck off in January 2006 after the GMC found them guilty of serious professional misconduct.

'Low standards'

Twenty-seven people died in 2002 at the Maypole which was registered to look after elderly and mentally infirm patients. The number of deaths the previous year had been eight.

New evidence obtained by Real Story under the Freedom of Information Act suggests that the authorities were aware of failings at the home going back more than a decade before it was closed.

The GPs had a responsibility to ensure that they were properly looked after Jonathan Peacock Family solicitor

Allegations reported to various authorities included mismanagement of drugs, threatening patients who got up in the night with injections, and forcing some residents to sleep in beds soaked in urine and faeces.

The programme talks to relatives of residents who died and ex-care home inspectors who reveal a picture of staff shortages, over-medication, poor nutrition and, in one case, alleged physical restraint.

The Maypole closed in 2003 and is now a home for the homeless under new management. Birmingham authorities have since revised their procedures.

West Midlands Police have investigated but they were satisfied there was no evidence of any crime having been committed. The Birmingham coroner has declined to open inquests into the deaths.

Now the solicitor representing some of the families of residents who died is seeking a judicial review with an aim of forcing inquests.

Jonathan Peacock said: "Whatever the underlying reasons for the residents being at the care home were, the GPs had a responsibility to ensure that they were properly looked after.

"Now there is evidence that staff were not properly trained in looking after those sort of residents.

"There was a genuine lack of hygiene and nutritional standards. And the bottom line was that the place was not geared up to look after the sort of residents that they had."

Dr Gopal and his wife Dr Lakshmi did not respond to requests from the programme for an interview.

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Real Story: BBC One, Monday, 21 August, at 1930 BST.