I Guess This is Called Blowback.

Following yesterday's (17/10/11) shock revelation that the adult social services department at Croydon University Hospital (CUH) have opened an investigation into my father for abusing my grandmother I today (18/10/11) submitted a statement clarifying my concerns. It's about three pages long so I won't be publishing the full version here. However I began with a summary of my grandmother's recent history; admitted July 17th, discharged July 21st, re-admitted August 20th etc. I then summarised the conversations I'd had with the ward care team including the August 23rd conversation I'd have with the Senior House Officer (SHO) that appears to have triggered the investigation and the September 1st mulit-disciplinary care team meeting. I also included a copy of the Section 4 instruction of October 15th.

I then clearly stated that all this had been done to ensure that the care team had all the available information in order to provide the best level of care and should have not been construed as an allegation of abuse against my father. However I went on to list the following four allegations that need to be investigated;

1. Due to a conflict of interest Dr David Matthews of the Heavers Resource Centre willfully disregarded relevant information about my grandmother's circumstances (e.g anxiety caused by a sustained harassment campaign throughout the diagnosis period) in order to falsely diagnose her with vascular dementia.

2. My grandmother's GP prescribed drugs such as Buprenorphine, Omeprazlone and Felodipine in order to worsen my grandmother's condition knowing full well that these actions posed a significant risk of death and serious injury. These actions continued despite numerous warnings and requests from relatives.

3. Social Workers at the Queens Road team failed to ensure that my grandmother was following her orthopaedic rehabilitation program. They also failed to report the GP's misconduct and falsified medical records in order to cover it up and discredit relatives.

4. Members of my grandmother's care team on the Purley 3 ward failed to perform a proper psychiatric assessment on either of my grandmother's admissions and defied a formal instruction under Section 4 of the 1983 Mental Health Act. It is my belief that this was done in order to cover up my grandmother's mistreatment and help the Local Health Authority (LHA) avoid it's obligations to her under Section 117 of the same act.*

I finished by expressing my concern that despite an investigation being opened no attempt had been made to contact me. Instead the matter was discussed first with my father - the subject of the investigation - while pressure was being put upon him to make decisions about my grandmother's care.

Given the scope of these allegations which cover several services provided by the LHA including the hospital itself the investigation should be passed directly to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As at least three of the allegations represent actual criminal offences the CQC should have little option other then to refer the matter to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and inform the Secretary of State of the possible need for an intervention order.



*I actually feel a bit bad about that one but the Section 4 instruction really should have taken the matter out of their hands. After all they cannot start an abuse investigation into my father and then argue that I'm not my grandmother's closest relative. However as it's obvious that they were operating under considerable pressure from superiors they should be let off with a reprimand provided they assist with the investigation.