Doctor MP claims social services boss said her dementia-hit father in his 70s ‘asked for it’ when he suffered brutal unexplained injuries in care home
- Rosena Allin-Khan found her father, who cannot speak, bloodied in care home
- Says she had ‘hushed’ call from Ensham House advising her to check on him
- That was three days after he was injured and she has not had an explanation
- Alleges that services boss simply told her that her father had ‘asked for it’
A Labour MP has said a social services chief told her that her father ‘asked for it’ after she found he’d been left in a bloodied mess at a care home.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan’s dementia-hit father suffered ‘brutal’ unexplained injuries at Ensham House in Wandsworth, where he was knocked out and left bruised.
But she says it was three days before she was informed and recalled receiving a ‘hushed’ phone call from a carer advising her family to check on the former university lecturer, who is unable to speak.
The Tooting MP (pictured, left, on the evening of the last General Election and, right, with predecessor Sadiq Khan, now Mayor of London) says she only received a veiled warning that she should check on her father and found him bloodied and battered
The Tooting MP told the Commons that Wandsworth Council’s director of adult social services, Liz Bruce, told her that the dementia sufferer had sustained the injuries because he ‘had asked for it’.
‘Nothing prepares you for arriving to find your loved one with black eyes, bruises, cuts and blood on their face,’ she said as she spoke in an adjournment debate that she organised into the safeguarding of vulnerable care home residents.
‘And I can tell you that nothing prepares you for discovering that these injuries in fact happened three days previously and nobody called you, no-one alerted you, nobody called an ambulance despite the fact that somebody had a head injury, was on blood thinners and is elderly, and not a single person – not one – having any answers as to how this may have happened or any proof at all as to how this occurred.’
Dr Allin-Khan (pictured in the Commons today) told of her horror at finding her father bloodied and bruised
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Dr Allin-Khan explained that her family complained to Wandsworth Council, which contracts out the care at the south London facility, which has self-contained flats and access to care on site.
‘From the very first meeting with the safeguarding team at Wandsworth Council, my brother and I felt as though we were put on trial,’ she said.
Dr Allin-Khan made the shocking allegations in Parliament today
‘A new manager from Ensham House was present, but he had no idea about what had happened to my father, and despite having been sent the horrific photos of my father’s brutal injuries the safeguarding team had not even looked at them.
‘London Care had no answers as to why we were not called, and again had no answers as to how it could have happened.
‘It was not until the wonderful police officer arrived, at my request, viewed the photos and showed visible alarm at the injury patterns that the Wandsworth Council staff actually took notice.’
Dr Allin-Khan went on to detail further concerns about the treatment of her father and also told MPs that she was speaking out for every member of society, with a need to protect the vulnerable and elderly.
Health Minister Caroline Dinenage thanked Dr Allin-Khan for her ‘brave’ speech, adding: ‘I must reassure her that what she has raised is something I take very seriously.
Dr Allin-Khan (pictured with her party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn) says that a council care boss said her father had ‘asked for it’
‘My officials have informed me that her raising her concerns so effectively and our inquiries from our office as well have prompted Wandsworth Council to hold another meeting today to discuss her case and review the evidence.
‘As a result, there will be an outcomes meeting. It will be held for all parties to consider recommendations going forward and (Dr Allin-Khan) will be able to attend.
‘We look forward to hearing the outcome, and we will all be keeping a close eye on what transpires.’
A Wandsworth council spokesman told the Guardian that the authority has spoken with the MP but added it has ‘not been able to validate her specific complaint about her father’s care’.
A council spokesman added that Liz Bruce is ‘one of the most experienced directors of adult social services in the country and has been a director for more than ten years’.
The spokesman claimed that Ms Bruce has ‘deep empathy’ for Dr Allin-Khan and her family.
The Metropolitan police investigated the injuries sustained by the elderly residenty but said it was not possible to confirm if he had been assaulted.
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