Aged lady died of hypothermia after housing affiliation failed to repair her boiler
A
n aged lady dwelling alone in a bungalow died of hypothermia after her name to report a fault along with her boiler went unanswered.
Sylvia Pollitt was discovered useless at her housing association dwelling in Seamons Walk, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, on December 1.
On November 18, Mrs Pollitt had known as housing assocation L&Q Group Housing to report a priority about her boiler.
The name was handed on to Liberty, a agency subcontracted by L&Q to offer gasoline providers, however Liberty was unable to contact Mrs Pollitt and closed the decision down.
Mrs Pollitt was discovered useless at her bungalow 13 days later.
A autopsy later revealed she died from issues of hypothermia.
Alison Mutch, space coroner for Manchester South, has now issued a uncommon ‘prevention of future deaths report’ to L&Q, calling on it to take steps to stop the same conditions.
She stated that when Liberty couldn’t attain Mrs Pollitt, it “should have escalated the situation”.
Agreements dictate Liberty ought to have knowledgeable the housing assocation that Mrs Pollitt was unreachable “so that they can carry out welfare checks and assess the position further”, in keeping with proof heard at inquest.
“Carrying out of welfare checks for vulnerable adults ensures that they are safe and well,” wrote Ms Mutch in her report. “That did not happen in Mrs Pollitt’s case.”
L&Q reportedly had “no audit system” that will assist present whether or not this was a one-off, or frequent challenge.
At the inquest, which ended final month, Ms Mutch concluded Mrs Pollitt “died from hypothermia when her request for an engineer visit when she had concerns about her boiler did not happen and non-contact with her was not escalated”.
L&Q has referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing following the incident.
David Lewis, Executive Group Director, Property Services at L&Q, stated: “We were extremely saddened by the death of Sylvia Pollitt, and our thoughts remain with her family, friends and neighbours. A tragic death like this must never happen again, and important changes have been made to ensure this is the case.
“After Mrs Pollitt reported a concern about her boiler, the job was passed to gas maintenance contractor Liberty. At this time, Liberty were under contract to Trafford Housing Trust (THT), a subsidiary of L&Q, and subject to THT processes.
“As the coroner’s report sets out, Liberty were unable to make contact with Mrs Pollitt, but rather than follow the agreed processes in place, they made no further efforts to access the property or let THT know about the situation.”
THT has now merged to kind a part of L&Q.
L&Q says that in keeping with recorded calls with Mrs Pollitt, the boiler fault was not affecting her heating on the time she rang on Nov
When a gasoline engineer visited the property after Mrs Pollitt died, he discovered there to be a “small leak” in her boiler.
Mr Lewis stated L&Q has carried out a “thorough” evaluate of all call-outs put via to Liberty, and didn’t discover related incidents had occurred.
He added {that a} “stringent new process” was instantly put in place, to trace the progress of every new call-out.
“We are able to audit every open, completed and aborted job, with reports produced on a weekly basis and reviewed between L&Q and Liberty managers,” he stated. “Any concerns are immediately escalated to our neighbourhood teams to undertake welfare checks. This is consistent with the recommendations made by the coroner in this case, which we are committed to learn from.
“More widely, following THT’s alignment with L&Q in April 2023, we are now replicating L&Q processes across all of our north west operations. Crucially, the L&Q process for repairs contractors does not permit them to cancel jobs without formal approval from L&Q. This will prevent such an incident happening again.
“We have made other important changes to the processes we have in place to keep residents safe. These include improving the way we manage and record the calls we get about repairs, more regular meetings with all contractors to monitor how the work they are doing for residents is progressing, and going to visit residents sooner to check they are okay when repairs have not been completed due to us being unable to make contact.
“L&Q has referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing in relation to this case.”
A spokesperson for Liberty stated: “Everybody at Liberty is deeply saddened by the death of Sylvia Pollitt.
“On November 18 last year a job was raised for a repair to a small leak on Mrs Pollitt’s boiler. We confirmed that the leak was not affecting the heating and hot water at Mrs Pollitt’s home and informed her we would make contact to schedule a repair.
“Unfortunately, in this case we were unable to contact Mrs Pollitt to arrange to visit her home.
“We are committed to working with L&Q to learn important lessons and implement changes to how services are delivered.
“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies remain with Mrs Pollitt’s family and friends.”