THE ‘awful’ treatment of a great grandmother has prompted bosses to replace the entire management team of a hospital rehabilitation unit.

Health chiefs have vowed that the ‘unacceptable standard’ of care provided to Hilda Carr ‘will never happen again’.

An action plan has now been put in place that means more staff will be on duty and increased checks will be made on vulnerable patients.

The family of Mrs Carr, 89, of St Mary’s Court, Mellor, said they were furious by the events at the Reedyford Ward of Pendle Community Hospital, where she had been admitted to aid her recovery from a fall.

They said the pensioner, who suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, was left alone for long periods, with staff not noticing when she was dirty, or helping her to eat and drink.

Family said they found her with sheets covered in soup, and faeces under her fingernails Mrs Carr suffered dramatic weight loss and became dehydrated and confused during her five-and-a-half week stay at the unit in Leeds Road, Nelson.

She was discharged into Fleetwood Hall Nursing Home on April 22, but was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on May 8, and died there two weeks later.

Coun James Shorrock, a member of the Blackburn with Darwen health scrutiny committee, said the incident showed a failure to properly monitor the conditions of the most vulnerable patients.

He said: “If I went in to the hospital to find a relative, a constituent or indeed anybody in this state I would be incredibly concerned.

“To have someone with Parkinson’s not being properly monitored and being served food and drink without any assistance is just not acceptable.

“The new action plan must be constantly monitored and reviewed to ensure things have changed on the ward, but in reality, this should never have been to happen in the first place.

“Action plans should be brought in proactively, to prevent things like this happening, not reactively, when it is too late.”

The health trust investigation the family’s complaints and found the standards are care “were unacceptable and not of the standard we expect”.

Lynn Wissett, director of clinical care and governance and deputy chief executive for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said they apologised for Mrs Carr’s treatment.

She said: ““As a result of a thorough investigation, senior leadership on the ward has been completely reviewed and replaced and the team has been further strengthened with three sisters on the Reedyford Ward.

“We have met with Mrs Keen and have gone through her complaints very thoroughly. It was agreed at this meeting that a detailed action-plan would be drawn up by a matron and senior manager which is to be owned by the staff with deadlines and review dates.

“Some of these actions include ensuring all staff attend the “Being with Patients” programme - a training course which allows them to examine their own attitudes when dealing with patients and their families.

“Other measures include assessing patients within six hours of admission, documenting thoroughly communication with families and ensuring that administrative processes are more accurately carried out.

“We will continue to make improvements to ensure this situation does not happen again.”

Mrs Carr’s daughter Jacqueline Keen, 64, of Tennyson Avenue, Thornton Cleveleys, said she was considering legal action.

She said: “By the end of it she didn’t look like my mum any more. She was miserable, confused and incredibly weak. She was supposed to be recuperating there, but it was just awful.”

Mrs Keen said she complained to the unit after visiting Mrs Carr to find her bed, floor and walls splattered with soup, faeces in her finger nails, and her mother very confused.

She said hot drinks had regularly been left for her mother without a feeder cup, risking scalding, and that staff had not washed her or combed her hair.

After her mother's death, Mrs Keen complained said she again, and attended a meeting in July where she said she was told that the ward had been short-staffed during Mrs Carr's stay.

Last week, Mrs Keen received details of the action plan in a letter from the trust’s chief executive Marie Burnham.

Mrs Keen said: “You'd expect them to have been doing everything on that action plan in the first place.

"I really believe that if I hadn't complained, nothing would have changed.”