Litany of Failures at Rest Home

A dying patient at Feilding’s Ranfurly Manor Hospital and Rest Home lay gasping for breath off and on for several days because the oxygen ran out, and had to be taken to hospital.

Two elderly residents with a history of falls weren’t properly assessed and kept falling out of bed.

One broke a hip, the other went to hospital with a suspected broken hip.

Both had to cry out for help because they couldn’t reach a call bell. There were times when the call bells didn’t work anyway.

Staff had to dispense medicines from a trolley by torchlight because the lighting in the corridor was so poor.

A resident on Warfarin missed out on the medication for four days.

Residents needing regular fluids received no help with managing cups at morning and afternoon tea time.

A dangerously thin patient was not weighed or monitored regularly.

Families and agency nurses found residents lying wet in their beds because there weren’t enough continence products.

Some written complaints were filed, but no action was taken.

Verbal complaints weren’t registered at all.

Those are some of the incidents and system failures unveiled in a special audit report on Ranfurly Manor Hospital and Rest Home released to the Manawatu Standard under the Official Information Act.

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