The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found that the Lancashire-headquartered firm failed to follow its own procedures. 

Promedica24, which provides live-in home care to people who prefer not to move to a residential care home, failed to follow its own procedures after a service user expressed suicidal intent, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found. 

“When someone in a carer’s charge expresses thoughts of taking their own life, that must always be treated as an emergency. Providers have clear policies for exactly this reason, and it is vital that staff are trained and confident enough to follow them under pressure,” said Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Amerdeep Clarke. 

The Ombudsman investigated a complaint against the Lancashire-headquartered firm after a live-in care worker did not escalate concerns when a man in their care expressed an intention to take his own life. The man later took an overdose and died in hospital a short time later.

The investigation found the care worker failed to follow the provider’s own self-harm and suicide awareness policy, which required staff to treat any expression of suicidal intent as an emergency, contact the emergency out-of-hours line, and notify family members. The care worker also demonstrated a lack of understanding of medication risk, having casually told the man’s daughter that he would have had to “eat the whole package” of the medication involved to “finish him off”.

Breach of regulations 

The Ombudsman found the care provider’s actions amounted to a breach of regulations requiring providers to assess and mitigate risks to people’s health and safety, and to treat people with dignity, respect and compassion.

The care provider subsequently refused to investigate a complaint from the daughter after her father’s death, on the grounds that a coroner’s inquest had already considered the circumstances. The Ombudsman found this was inconsistent with the provider’s own complaints policy and amounted to a further breach of regulatory standards on complaint handling.

While the Ombudsman could not say whether the outcome for the man would have been different had staff acted correctly, the failure to escalate his concerns meant his daughter lost the opportunity to be involved in decisions about her father’s care.

“I hope this case prompts all care providers to reflect on how confident their staff are in recognising and escalating risk, and how robust their complaints processes are, so that families are not left with unanswered questions at the worst possible time,” said Clarke.