She must go because her police officer daughter Denise made an “unauthorised window visit”. This is the latest heart-breaking example of the difficulties people are facing in seeing loved ones in care homes during the coronoavirus pandemic and comes as the Government vows to reunite families by Christmas. Last night Elizabeth’s distraught daughter Denise Hobbs told the Daily Express: “My mum is being evicted just because I love her and want to see her.” The care home where her dementia-stricken mother, 78, lives – Aspen Hill Village in Leeds – has said it is evicting the former nurse because Denise breached visitation policy by trying talk to her frail mother through an open patio door. The family now face the agony of finding new accommodation for Elizabeth, affectionately known as Anne, just weeks before Christmas.
Tearful Denise, 53, thinks her mother is yet another victim of the disturbing rise in so-called revenge evictions, which punish families who dare to voice concerns about care standards – a claim the care home denies.
Government vows to reunite families by Christmas.
Last night Elizabeth’s distraught daughter Denise Hobbs told the Daily Express: “My mum is being evicted because I love her and want to see her.”
Dementia-stricken Elizabeth, 78, known affectionately as Anne, is cared for at Aspen Hill Village in Leeds, but must leave today.
Denise, 53, claims the home is turfing Anne out after it objected to Denise trying to talk to her mother through an open patio door in what amounts to an unauthorised window visit.
And she believes her mother is yet another victim of the disturbing rise in so-called “revenge evictions”, which punish families who dare to voice concerns about care standards – a claim the care home denies.
Denise said: “I am anxious, upset, angry and bewildered – we just don’t know where mum is going to go yet. She is aware something is going on but whether she understands…”
The traumatic story is the latest to be exposed by the crusading Daily Express, which continues to campaign on behalf of hundreds of thousands of families who are still unable to hug, hold or touch loved ones, many of whom are dying, eight months into the pandemic.
Anne, a great-grandmother of 12, worked as an auxiliary nurse at Stirling Hospital in her native Scotland and later in a care home in Scarborough.
She moved into Aspen Hill on April 29 during the height of the Covid crisis after the family was told she could have a room with patio window and visits would be allowed.
Denise or one of her four sisters visited every day and staff would open the patio window so they could see her.
But then Denise made an unsolicited visit.
Denise claimed: “During a visit on October 4, mum’s patio door was open so I went straight to it. After a couple of minutes a nurse and the senior carer were in the room. They told me I wasn’t allowed to be there.
“Seeing my mum lying in her bed, knowing she had not been out of her room for any interaction or fresh air for 39 days, I became upset…and through tears asked if my mum was now a prisoner. I now stand accused of making staff anxious, which is preposterous.”
She is convinced her mum has been punished in revenge for the unsolicited patio door visit and comments she posted on a private Facebook group.
Last night Aspen Hill Village director Dr Shahz Ahmed said: “We categorically refute any suggestion this was a revenge eviction because Mrs Moreton [Anne’s daughter] raised concerns on a Facebook site. We operate an open door policy and the manager welcomes all residents and their families to raise concerns directly. Unfortunately, our continued reasonable requests to adhere to our visiting policy…has led to an irreconcilable breakdown in our relationship with Mrs Bow’s family.”
Jayne Connery, director of Care Campaign for the Vulnerable, said: “We are calling for an independent review on every eviction served in care homes.”
