The daughter of a woman, who died shortly after sustaining pressure sores on her legs, has received compensation for a lack of care in a nursing home.

Ninety-eight year old Ivy Jones was moved into the Carshalton Nursing Home in November 2012 due to falling several times in her home in Mitcham, Surrey. Ivy suffered from dry skin on her legs; but, shortly after moving into the nursing home, pressure sores developed on both of her calves which caused Ivy significant distress and a substantial amount of pain when the dressings on her legs were changed.

Visiting relatives complained to staff at the nursing home about the deterioration in Ivy´s condition; however, Ivy´s condition deteriorated further. Eventually Ivy´s family complained to her social worker, who arranged for Ivy to be moved to a different nursing home in January 2013. Tragically Ivy died just one month later in February 2013.

Sutton Council conducted an investigation into the standard of care at the nursing home after receiving complaints from Ivy´s family and found that the “the quality of care fell below the acceptable standard”. The local authority placed an embargo on the nursing home until November 2014, when a new manager was employed and improvements made to how the operation was run.

The council´s investigation also concluded that more should have been done to prevent the development and deterioration of Ivy´s pressure sores and that the nursing home staff could have made a greater effort to obtain medical attention for her.

Subsequently, Ivy´s daughter – Shirley Dell – sought legal advice and claimed compensation for a lack of care in a nursing home. The owners of Carshalton Nursing Home denied liability for Ivy´s injuries, but agreed to an out-of-court settlement of £12,000 without an admission of liability.

Speaking after the settlement of compensation for a lack of care in a nursing home had become public, Shirley was reported in her local press as saying: “I just wanted some form of justice for my mum. When they changed her dressings she used to scream in agony. It wasn’t right for her to suffer like she did.”