Islington in Bloom winner Rose Hollingworth, who died in January 2022 following failings in her home care

A CORONER has told Islington Council and the care watchdog it has just under two months to respond to his concerns – after he warned people were at risk of dying due to failings in care.

Assistant coroner Jonathan Stevens has written to Islington, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the HomeDotCare (HDC) agency after investigating the death of 83-year-old Rose Hollingworth.

The former shop worker was found in bed with vomit and blood-stained sheets after suffering a stroke at her Finsbury Park home in January 2022.

The coroner’s report – described by Ms Hollingworth’s family as “the tip of the iceberg in a litany of errors” – said “There was a failure to provide suitably trained, experienced and competent carers for a vulnerable person dependent on a package of care.”

It added: “The failings demonstrated a poor standard of care.”

On the day of her death, a carer had called round in the morning to find her apparently asleep but left – without making further checks – after HDC told them to. When she returned later that day, Ms Hollingworth was face down in the bed and it was only then that a 999 call was made.

It emerged during an inquest in July last year that her catheter bag had between one to two days of urine inside.

The coroner’s report, published this week, calls into question not only why the agency sent someone to care for Ms Hollingworth who was untrained for the role and inexperienced in caring, but why those charged with monitoring care agencies had failed in their duties.

Debbie Fossey (left) and Michael Taylor (right), who lost their aunt Rose Hollingworth in 2022, and Emma Hall, whose ex-partner died in 2021

During the inquest, Ms Hollingworth’s carer needed a translator to answer the coroner’s questions, leading Mr Stevens to record his concern that the carer “lacked the ability to properly and safely communicate” with Ms Hollingworth in English.

Mr Stevens said: “There was a failure to provide suitably trained, experienced and competent carers for a vulnerable person dependent on a package of care. There was a failure to properly supervise and manage the carers.

“The Care and Support plan was not properly completed and contained significant errors. There was a failure to properly monitor, review, manage and check the performance of the care agency.”

As a result, he added, “there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken”.

While he accepted earlier intervention in Ms Hollingworth’s case would not have saved her, he said “in other circumstances [the poor care given] could have delayed potentially lifesaving intervention and treatment” – and has asked Islington, the CQC and HDC to inform him of their improvements by May 3.

This week the care given to Ms Hollingworth was described by her family as “preposterous”. Her niece, Debbie Fossey, said: “The use of untrained, unqualified staff, with no understanding of English relied upon to provide personal care, nutrition, medication and monitoring to an 83-year-young person, with serious underlying health needs, is preposterous by anyone’s standards. But that’s exactly what level of care was provided to Rose.”

She warned that since her aunt’s death, she had been exposed to the bleak reality of the care industry.

“Whilst Rose was of vast and great significance to our family, her friends and loved ones, it’s becoming evident that this level of care extended isn’t a one-off,” she said.

“With a number of cases within the borough already known to us, on a much larger scale events such as this are widespread nationally.”

She added: “Standards in care must change, and we will continue to seek to be part of that change for those like Rose and many others who simply didn’t have their voices heard.”

Rose, pictured on the right with her sister Kath, died after suffering a stroke at her Finsbury Park home

A spokesperson for Islington Council said: “Safeguarding our most vulnerable residents is our top priority and we are committed to upholding high standards of care in the borough.

“We monitor all of our care providers, carrying out audits and reviewing care packages, working alongside the Care Quality Commission, to make sure social care services provide people with safe, effective and high-quality care.

“We will continue to work with HomeDotCare to ensure that they provide a high-quality service. At present, we remain satisfied with the quality of service being delivered – as does the independent regulator, the CQC.”

A statement from the registered manager of HDC yesterday (Thursday) said: “We fully understand the hurt and loss family and friends feel when somebody in care dies and our sympathies and condolences go out to Rose’s family and friends.

“However, we would like to make clear that in this case the inquest concluded that the lady concerned died of natural causes and we believe nothing in the provision of care provided by HomeDotCare could have prevented this outcome.

“The matter was at the time reported to the police, the Care Quality Commission and the local authority adult safeguarding unit as well as being the subject of a coroner’s inquest.

“We have cooperated fully, openly and with complete transparency into all external investigations into this case and will continue to do so.

“We take very seriously all the comments made by the coroner regarding HomeDotCare and will act upon all concerns raised as a matter of extreme priority.

“In the meantime, we would like to reassure all our service users, their families and friends, that HomeDotCare is committed to providing the very best care to all our service users and we would be happy to talk to any service user or family member who has any concerns about any public comment made in respect of this case.”

The CQC had not responded to requests for comment before we went to press.