Care home staff 'ignored hundreds of cries for help from elderly woman'

An elderly woman screamed for help 321 times in a single hour only to be ignored by London care home staff, hidden camera footage has revealed

Great-grandmother Yvonne Grant begged to be taken to the toilet at Oban House care home in Croydon but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

The camera, which was placed in the room by concerned granddaughter Vanessa Evans, captured the final undignified days of the 98-year-old’s life, as she died less than a month later.

Ms Evans, who hid the cameras on three days, said she was “devastated and fuming” but not shocked.

“I was expecting to find something but I didn’t think it would be this extreme,” she said.

The footage will be broadcast tonight as part of the BBC Panorama documentary looking at elderly care standards.

HC-One, the UK’s third biggest care home provider, which runs Oban House said the poor care “was not, and is not, indicative of the standards we demand and was contrary to all of the processes and training we have put in place”.

At a separate care home in Essex, eight care workers were suspended after secret cameras filmed elderly residents allegedly being mistreated.

Footage appears to show a dementia sufferer being slapped and it is claimed a woman paralysed by stroke was also taunted and bullied.

Anglia Retirement Homes said it had launched an independent inquiry into the allegations at the Old Deanery in Braintree after the BBC says it filmed staff mocking residents and ignoring their calls for help. It added the incidents involved a “small number of staff” and were not reflective of the high standards of care it demanded.