'Criticism' of home before death

A nursing home had been criticised months before a 74-year-old woman died there after being left in a wheelchair overnight, an inquest heard.

Brigid O'Callaghan was found with the chair's seatbelt wrapped around her neck at the Bupa-run Amberley Court nursing home in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Inspectors had graded the home as poor, Birmingham Coroner's Court was told.

There were long-standing concerns over a lack of formal staff supervision, a report following an inspection said.

'Ongoing problem'

The body of the widow from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, was discovered in her bedroom on the morning of 28 October 2005 by the home's cleaner.

A report following an inspection in July that year said care plans for residents were "inadequate", the inquest heard.

Kathleen Strong, an inspector for the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), said: "The inspection of July 2005 was a typical example of the continuing lack of appropriate care plans for people."

She added that risk assessments had also been an "ongoing problem", describing them as "generic and not individualised".

Brain damage

Another inspection in November the same year, following the death of Mrs O'Callaghan, saw the CSCI issue the home with an enforcement notice regarding care plans, she said.

The home is now risk-rated as being adequate and has been since October 2006, Ms Strong said.

Mrs O'Callaghan, known as Vera, suffered from brain damage following a road traffic accident two years earlier.

She was staying in the home for a week's respite care while her daughter and full-time carer, Ann, took a break.

A pathologist has told the inquest that Mrs O'Callaghan's cause of death was given as asphyxia due to an obstruction to her breathing.

The hearing continues.