Chickenley family claim disabled man was left unwashed in hospital

Christine Murkin says her brother, Stephen Overend, was not washed during a two month stay at Dewsbury and District Hospital.

She said she never saw staff change the incontinence pants he has to wear and a bed sore he developed while in hospital was not properly reported.

Mrs Murkin, 54, said: “Stephen is in a wheelchair. He can’t talk or do anything for himself. The care seemed to be alright for the first few weeks, then I noticed it was going downhill. They weren’t washing him.

“When he came home, you could smell him when you came into the room. He gets carers in at night to help and one of them just said ‘he’s never been washed’.”

Mr Overend, 44, was admitted on November 6, 2011, after staff at the day centre he goes to grew worried about problems he was having with swallowing.

He was eventually discharged on January 9 this year following the insertion of a feeding tube.

But Mrs Murkin says she cannot understand why it took so long for a simple procedure to be carried out by the hospital.

Her concerns grew when Mr Overend came home and carers found a dressed bed sore.

Mrs Murkin, of Walnut Crescent, Chickenley, said: “The hospital gave us a note for the district nurse, but there’s no mention of the sore on there.”

She said that when she asked hospital staff, they could not find anything in his notes.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust’s chief nurse Tracey McErlain-Burns said she was very disappointed that the care received was not of the standard expected.

“Our patients deserve dignity and compassion while they are cared for in our hospitals – this is the hallmark of good nursing,” she said.

“We have a Dignity Charter and standards of practice and we expect all our staff to work to these guidelines. I will personally look into what happened to address the family’s concerns.”