What was significant was that at the time John Kilbride was unaware of the meaning of his mother`s sudden incapacity and need to be bedridden when he called up to see her after the lock change. But then, he was not aware of the great flurry of activity that went on between social services and the various other departments after he changed his mother`s lock. That would come later.
When he walked into the Morrieburn care home on 23 June 2011 there were changes he noticed immediately. His nerves were raw and on alert. The care home manager was there, dressed as if this was an occasion, but ordinarily he knew her to be an intimidating and unpleasant person who flitted between the various care homes and so was not always available. She was there on this occasion, but occupied and talking to men wearing suits. In the reception area where they were gathered, she was entertaining these men in front of a row of tables with silver platters of canopes, sandwiches and a plentiful supply of glasses of wine. It was sickening that on the other side of the secure door there were claggy cakes and an occasional drop of insipid tea, but only in the afternoons. John walked past her, got through the door which separated her party from the inmates inside, and quickly gained access to his mother sitting in her chair wide awake!
"Where were you?" she asked, and his spirits rose to see his mother so alive and bright. He had the two letters with him and the other documentation ready for their signatures in front of the GP. Mrs Kilbride then told him that Dr Hunter had called in to see her and that is when John`s spirits immediately sank. He had the wheelchair with him ready so that they could make a quick escape, no matter what, and the plan was that he would then transport his mother to the health centre. Only the GP had called into the care home earlier in the morning. John was fearful about what that meant. He had already been informed what the process was by a care worker. If his mother was ever assessed as incapacitated then the GP would no longer be responsible for her primary care and would hand over her medical records to the care home. Something like that might have occurred. If so, the capacity assessment must have happened some time after John saw his mother in bed on 21 June 2011 and his present visit. The timing was catastrophic, and then it dawned on him.
This system was so evil it would drug an old woman to keep her a prisoner!
If things had been difficult before this happened, their plight was now desperate. His mother would remain in the care home until John Kilbride could challenge whatever kind of assessment had taken place. Only with social services informing him that they would not be communicating with him it was going to be impossible to get hold of the details. It seemed they had devised the perfect formula to ensure that they got their way. What was worse, and if his suspicions were correct, this would allow his brother George to activate the Power of Attorney.
It was understandable why Mrs Kilbride had asked John: "Where were you?" They had made a joint appointment to see Dr Hunter for that very afternoon but Dr Hunter had turned up to see Mrs Kilbride at the care home in the morning when John was not there. Living in this strange environment,. with her deteriorating eye sight, and surrounded by unfamiliar voices and having recently recovered from a sudden unexplained sedated state, Mrs Kilbride was bound to be a bit confused about what had gone on. What John realised was that Dr Hunter had merely been doing the cursory thing in the circumstances and had called in to say goodbye to her patient because she would never be seeing her again. Her visit had nothing to do with the double appointment. That had been arranged for 3 o`clock.
Stitched up.
He had enought time to tell his mother that George, who had recently returned to work in the Post Office, now had a Power of Attorney. Whether that was a good thing to do or not he did not know and he mulled it over in his brain many times, but what was his mother to think? She had trusted him. He never wanted her to think that he had turned out to be the same as the rest of them, and that there would never be any hope for her. Without hope there is only despair.
The manager must have been embarrassed, or at least wary, about what she was going to do because she did not act in front of the visitors she was entertaining. It was when they were safely out of the way and would not witness the encounter which was going to take place, that she approached John who was engaged in conversation with his mother. The manager brought her own witness with her, a senior nurse who worked in the care home. Without paying attention to Mrs Kilbride or showing the least concern about the effect on her, the manager demanded that her visitor, John Kilbride, should leave the care home. Startled and embarrassed, John followed her out and in an excited voice began to ask what this was about? He was instructed not to shout and alarm the residents. His brother had a Power of Attorney and he must leave and she walked him all the way to the front door without giving him the opportunity to discuss the matter.
John Kilbride has been asked many times why he did not make more of a fuss and put up some kind of resistance but he was too aware of the awkward situation he was in. There was an implied threat in the manager`s remark and tone of voice. He must not alarm the other residents she insisted. How easy it would have been for her to pick up the phone to the police and make those kind of allegations, knowing there was a bit of paper called a Power of Attorney to back up her claims! They had pounced when all systems were in place. So he thought at the time. Then there were the newspaper articles he read and one in particular he remembers:
A former councillor was banned from seeing his disabled mother in a Glasgow care home unless accompanied by a social worker. It seems he had made a bit of a nuisance of himself when he insisted his mother needed pain relief for her bedsores. The area manager`s response was to state: `The health and wellbeing of our residents is always our number one priority. The company has a duty of care to protect its residents and staff from abuse and intimidating behaviour.` She sounded more like a politician than a health care professional. So insisting on pain relief was to be called intimidating behaviour and there was to be no more of that. Meanwhile the care home would never be called to account for allowing this poor woman, through their possible neglect, to develop bedsores. And even if they had not been complicit through their neglect in causing the woman`s bedsores they would never be held to account for withholding a timely and appropriate response to her pain. John Kilbride thought that was disgusting. The son had been distressed at the suffering of his mother. As time went on he read into this a greater significance.
Shocked and distressed and at a loss once again John Kilbride made his way to the health centre to keep his half of the double appointment with Dr Hunter. Perhaps she would be able to explain what had transpired at the care home. When he spoke to the receptionist he was perplexed when the young woman informed him without any hesitation that the appointment had been cancelled due to a computer training day. The young receptionist was behind her desk with her computer functioning, so it seemed, because she showed no sign of embarrassment or confusion in answering his query. In fact she had the ready answer. Also he had walked straight into the reception area and there were no notices to alert anybody wandering in who might want to make an urgent appointment. There were no notices saying COMPUTER TRAINING DAY phone such and such a number, or anything like that. . It was highly suspicious.
Why had the surgery not done the decent thing and written or telephoned or emailed, or whatever it took, to inform those patients/clients that their appointments would need to be changed to another date? The surgery had John`s records. Surely John was not the only one inconvenienced by computer training day because the receptionist was too ready with her cavalier excuse if he was! Had he been the only one she should have been confused about it. Two things alerted him that there was something not right about it. She never apologised and she never offered him another appointment. As it was, in all his years as a patient at this surgery he had never known an appointment to be suddenly cancelled in such an offhand manner.
John Kilbride considered the situation. Supposing he had got to the care home before Dr Hunter and had managed to take his mother out. Was computer training day another means to block Mrs Kilbride`s escape from the system? He never did understand why a double appointment should have taken longer than a single appointment. This whole matter was turning into a Kafkaesquian nightmare.
.
When he arrived back at his home he found the letter from Ms Richards. It was dated 22 June 2011 which was the previous day`s date: It confirmed his worst suspicions.
Dear Mr Kilbride,
We confirm we have been your mother`s solicitor for many years and that there is a registered Power of Attorney granted by her appointing your brother George to act for her in both financial and welfare matters. We understand her doctor has recently confirmed that she no longer has capacity to deal with her own finances or welfare.
Your brother George is concerned to learn that your mother`s Clydesdale Bank account was recently transferred into your joint names and further that £500 was withdrawn on 19 June 2011. Please confirm the purpose of that withdrawal.
As mentioned above, the Power of Attorney granted in favour of your brother gives him welfare powers and in that regard we are instructed to advise that it is his considered view that it is in your mother`s best interest that you do not visit her any further. We trust you will accede to this request.
We recommend that you take independent legal advice as to the contents of this letter.
Then there was the telephone call from his younger brother Robert who told John that he must not go to see their mother because the psychiatrist thought he was having a bad effect on her. "What psychiatrist?" John snapped back. "Don`t listen to George, he lies." Robert insisted that John would be arrested if he attempted to see their mother.
At this point John Kilbride was so shattered with everything that was happening he took his bicycle down the four flights of steps and did the only thing he could think of to calm himself down. He got himself out into the world, and had a good measure of fresh air and exercise. He cycled along the track passing Clydebank and Bowling on his way to Loch Lomond. It was George`s considered view that it was in his mother`s best interest that he should not visit her any more, according to the solicitor. Yet when George talks to Robert he will not admit this and blames the ban on an imaginary psychiatrist. What a rat! So John`s thoughts rumbled along until he got a clearer view of what he should do next.
Along the route to Bowling
It had been John Kilbride who had picked his mother up from Hairmyres Hospital to drive her back to Morrieburn care home after her last hospitalisation. He passed the discharge papers to the care workers later that night along with his mother`s changed medication. There was an outpatient appointment made for his mother at the hospital on 28 June 2011 which was clearly stipulated on the discharge papers. He had been going to take his mother for this appointment. Now he worried that the care home might be unaware of it. The care workers had been more intent on giving John a row for calling up to the care home after nine o`clock at night than paying heed to the discharge papers but he never realised that all residents would be in their beds by then and in any case he had had to go to the hospital to pick up his mother`s new medication.
He telephoned the care home and spoke to a male worker and recognised it was Alan whom he had had conversations with when he was free to visit his mother. He would see him sometimes having a fly smoke outside. He must have been sitting in for the receptionist because he was not transferred to her or to the manager. John explained that Mrs Kilbride had a hospital appointment on 28 June 2011. The worker did not seem to know anything about it and casually asked: "Who`s taking her?" John explained that he had intended to but had been banned from visiting his mother, half hoping that he would be told, `Well that`s all right then, you can take her,` but that did not happen. He was thanked for passing on the message. The telephone call left John Kilbride strangely unsatisfied. When the day of his mother`s appointment arrived John made sure he was at the outpatient department in order to have a few more words with his mother. She never appeared.
John was furious: So all of this was supposed to be in his mother`s best interests, was it? .
The wheelchair he had picked up from his mother`s flat was now superfluous to his requirements and he decided to return it to his relatives who had loaned it to his mother. He could not return it to his mother`s flat and he could not keep it in the boot of his car. "We`re very disappointed with you," he was told when he delivered the wheelchair but apart from that was not told what was disappointing him exactly. John Kilbride was in no mood for this., no doubt another of George`s fairy tales. His Vauxhall Vectra was in a bad way and in rushing down the road the brake pads were now scored to bits. His mother`s niece had just recovered from a hip operation and her husband was looking after her. John knew that she might be a possible visitor for his mother in the care home, once recovered, and might benefit from the wheelchair herself.. They stayed close to Hairmyres Hospital. Constantly in a rattled state, the smoke began belching out of the brakes as soon as he was on his way to the mechanic. He could not stop thinking.
There were National Care Standards for adults living in care homes in Scotland 2011. Standard 8 was particularly interesting to John Kilbride:
Standard 8: Making choices
You can make choices in all aspects of your life.
- You achieve the aims set out in your personal plan helped by the support and care of skilled staff.
- You have information about the choices that are available to you while you live in the home, and the effect they will have on you. If you want, you can ask for an independent representative or for specialist advice.
- You have time to consider your choices without pressure.
- Unless there are legal reasons for you not to do so, you can carry out your own financial, legal and other personal business at a time that suits you. You can decide who should know about, and have access to, your personal business.
- You can keep and control your money and your personal belongings, unless your individual circumstances mean that specific legal arrangements have been made.
- You can choose to employ your own worker or personal assistant as well as using staff who are employed in the home
It was all nonsense. There was no personal plan for his mother that they knew about it Neither one of them had been provided with information and certainly not his mother. In fact John Kilbride had been informed by the social worker that she would no longer be communicating with him. There was nobody but John talking to his mother about her situation but since he was kept in the dark where did that leave his mother? Although she had confided in him and wished John to help her sort things out, his mother`s wishes were disregarded. In fact, nobody asked her what her wishes were. She was given no time to consider anything and certainly had no choice in the matter of her incarceration in the care home. She had started off doing respite in the village and then had been taken from that care home and placed in Morrieburn without being given any say in the matter. Was that not kidnap? Mrs Kilbride had taken matters into her own hands regarding her finances by drawing on John`s assistance but `legal arrangements` had been set up behind her back to take control away from her. So much for Care Standards and what could a little old woman do about it, locked away, when the only person who would assist her was forbidden to see her?
Ms Richards had recommended that he take independent legal advice in regards to the content of her letter. She had a nerve and he had no intention of following her recommendation until he had given the matter more thought: Supposing the next solicitor was as crooked as she was? So it was on 12 July he finally got around to writing to Ms Richards:
Dear Ms Richards,
I refer to your letter dated 22 June 2011 in connection with my mother Mrs Kilbride. You asked me to explain a withdrawal made from the Clydesdale Bank account on 19 June 2011. [Actually a mistake. It was 20 June 2011, the day before changing the lock.]
My brother George did not have Power of Attorney the first time my mother and I went to the Clydesdale Bank early in June when my mother changed the mandate so that George Kilbride would not be able to make withdrawals on her account. She made no withdrawals that day. The second time we went to her bank was on 19 June 2011. [actually 20 June 2011]. On this date no doctor had assessed my mother as being incapable of dealing with her own finances or welfare. The withdrawal was made under my mother`s instructions and we were both present at the Clydesdale bank at the time.
One of the purposes of the withdrawal was so that I could change the lock to my mother`s flat which I did and which cost £105. George Kilbride had refused to give my mother the key to her flat and she was in Morrieburn Care Home and locked away from her possessions, clothes and correspondence.
Another purpose of the withdrawal was so that I could make an application for a continuing Power of Attorney for my mother as she did not wish George Kilbride to have Power of Attorney. We made a joint appointment with her GP, Dr Hunter, who has known my mother for years, in order that she could be a witness to the proceedings and sign the required certificate. My mother believed she understood what she was doing and her doctor was the best person to verify this. She had specific requirements about what should be in this documnent. Unfortunately, Georege Kilbride obtained the Power of Attorney before she could follow through with these actions and all actions are now being blocked by George Kilbride with your assistance.
My mother entered Morrieburn Care Home on the understanding that this would be a temporary situation until she could move to sheltered accommodation. She wanted to be in control of her own affairs and to live as independently as possible. She never instigated any actions to have George Kilbride as her Attorney and was afraid that she would be dumped in Morrieburn Care Home forever with no control over her own affairs if this ever happened. For my mother the worst has happened and she gains nothing by having George Kilbride as her Attorney.
In fact, life has got more limited for my mother, as I am no longer allowed to visit her to take her on the outings she enjoyed immensely. She has again been locked away from her possessions, clothes and correspondence because George Kilbride changed my mother`s lock again the morning after I had changed it, without a word of this to my mother. My mother had spare keys to hand out to family members. She had no wish to withhold access, merely to have access to her possessions herself. It had cost her £105 to assert her rights. Now there is no-one fighting for my mother`s human rights.
Could you please explain who approached you in connection with the Power of Attorney for George Kilbride? My mother was in Morrieburn Care Home without access to a telephone, reading aids, money, address book or means to get through the care home doors. So it was not possible for my mother without support to contact you, even if she had wanted to. I also know that the one time George Kilbride visited my mother at Morrieburn Care Home she chased him away with her walking stick. She would not have willingly gone anywhere with him or signed anything.
I also understand that George Kilbride attempted to make a withdrawal from my mother`s account on 21 June 2011. This he did without visiting my mother and obtaining her instructions or consent. Because my mother had changed the mandate in order to avoid such an occurrence, George Kilbride discovered that the account was frozen. He immediately went to see you, not my mother. You then wrote the letter to me dated 22 June 2011. Could you please tell me if George Kilbride will be paying you for your assistance?
I do hope my mother is not expected to pay for this as all of it goes against my mother`s wishes.
Ms Richards never did answer John Kilbride`s question: Could you please explain who approached you in connection with the Power of Attorney for George Kilbride?
Because it certainly should not not have been George Kilbride.
And it could not have been his mother.
As Ex-Senator Stuart Syvret said in his blog. about corruption in Jersey:
Indeed - as I learnt from two decades of constituency work - it's a rare thing indeed for a person to have real control over a lawyer - even when they're the paying client.
Lawyers secretly trade amongst and between themselves - trade their clients, the client's cases, and the outcomes.
Once the maximum amount of fees that can be realistically extracted from a particular case has been reached by both sets of lawyers, they then bring about the end of the case, in a way long-since agreed between the "opposing" lawyers behind their clients' backs.
Democratically elected politicians may, by & large, be no good - but they're the least bad repository of power on offer.
Stuart
