AN elderly nursing home resident was thrown out of her chair when another resident used a remote control to raise it, writes Gareth Hughes.

Now a coroner is raising concerns that other deaths could occur unless some system is devised to make remote controls safe.

It follows an inquest into the death of 96-year-old Evelyn Ann Burcham, a resident at the Frethey House Nursing Home in Taunton.

Mrs Burcham was admitted to the home in 2017 after suffering a stroke and her condition deteriorated due to dementia.

The inquest was told that she relied totally on staff who knew her well and could interpret her mumbling and facial expressions.

On December 14, 2022, a carol concert was to be held at the home and Mrs Burcham was taken to the lounge and placed in a riser-recliner chair.

While carers went to help others one of the other residents, whose dementia led her to fiddle with items, took hold of the remote control for Mrs Burcham’s chair and raised it, tipping her onto the floor.

The 94-year-old landed on her head and suffered a severe bleed on the brain. She died 10 days later and a conclusion of accidental death was recorded by Samantha Marsh, senior coroner for Somerset.

Mrs Marsh has now issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the Care Quality Commission which oversees all care homes, the Health and Safety Executive and the Department of Health and Social Care.

In it she said she was concerned that the riser/ recliner chairs were commonplace in care homes where resident suffer from cognitive impairment, and the risk of another resident accessing the controls had not been considered by Frethey House.

“If this particular care home group did not foresee the risk then it is likely that others have not foreseen it either,” she said.

Mrs Marsh said that the owners of Frethey House had been told that no chairs with “safe” remote controls were available and there were no manufacturing standards for consumers governing such safety features.

“I was told that the only way to render the remote ‘safe’ was to turn the power off at the mains, which in itself could create health and safety issues if the chair needed to be operated quickly,” said the coroner.

The organisations have until December 26 to respond to her concerns.

A spokesperson for the home said: “Mrs Burcham was a much-loved member of our home community and we would like to again share our condolences with her family.

“As noted by the Coroner, riser-recliner chairs are commonplace in care settings and the risk was unforeseeable. An incident of this nature had never before happened at our home.

“Nevertheless, following the incident we have undertaken a full review of our management and use of riser-recliner chairs. We have introduced new risk assessment documentation and asset registers to document where equipment is in use and evidence servicing and monitoring checks. We are also working with a partner organisation to identify, and supply, covers for control units to reduce the potential of unplanned access and minimise any risk.

“It goes without saying that the health and safety of our residents is our absolutely priority and we will continue to follow best practice on this matter.”