NHS manager boasts death of Terry Jones meant trust ‘got away with’ failings in dementia deaths

Senior NHS manager boasts that coverage of Terry Jones’ death meant his trust ‘got away with’ report slamming failures over deaths of two dementia patients – in e-mail he accidentally sends to journalist

  • Report looked into deaths of two dementia patients at same Norfolk care home 
  • Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust was criticised for the deaths in the report
  • However, an NHS manager bragged to staff that they had ‘gotten away with’ it 
  • He also told staff that Monty Python star Terry Jones’ death had ‘saved them’ 

A gloating NHS manager sent an email to staff saying they had ‘got away with it’ after a report into two dementia suffers dying was overshadowed by the death of Monty Python star Terry Jones. 

Yesterday, the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust was criticised in an investigation into the death of dementia sufferer Doreen Livermore, 88, who’d been attacked in Amberley Hall Care Home in King’s Lynn by another dementia patient. 

She broke her hip in the attack and died six weeks later. 

The NSFT was also criticised for the death of another man with dementia at the same care home in 2017.

But instead of addressing the death, the NSFT’s communications manager Mark Prentice bragged to colleagues in an email that they had ‘got away with it’, adding ‘I think we may have been saved by the death of Terry Jones’.

The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust was criticised in an investigation into the death of dementia sufferer Doreen Livermore, 88

Monty Python star Jones died yesterday after a battle with a rare form of dementia.

Prentice wrote in his email, which he accidentally sent to a journalist: ‘We seem to have got away (again) with the Adult Safeguarding Review.

‘I think we may have been saved by the death of Terry Jones.

‘Yet again… we emerged virtually unscathed.’ 

The investigation found that Mrs Livermore’s family had repeatedly complained to the care home and to Norfolk County Council before she was attacked.

Monty Python star Jones, pictured, died yesterday after a battle with a rare form of dementia 

They had said that the man was attacking residents before he assaulted their mother.   

He had received support from the NSFT’s dementia team but, according to the investigation, had discharged the attacker too soon. 

Doreen was attacked in a Amberley Hall Care Home in King's Lynn by another dementia patient

Doreen was attacked in a Amberley Hall Care Home in King’s Lynn by another dementia patient

Eventually, hew was moved into a mental health facility but not before pushing Mrs Livermore over in December 2017. 

With the death of the second man, the investigation found that NSFT did not flag their concerns about the ability of the home to manage him.

Mrs Livermore’s son Roy, from Snettisham, told the Eastern Daily Press: ‘The fact they are talking about ‘getting away’ with it in relation to the death of my mother is absolutely disgusting. It begs the question, what do they feel they got away with?’ 

Jonathan Warren, chief executive at the NSFT, said: ‘We are undertaking an investigation regarding the inappropriate comments made about the sad death of Doreen Livermore by a member of our staff.

‘We take this very seriously and will be contacting the family of Mrs Livermore to give them our sincere apologies and offer them our support.’ 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk