Bill Beaugié MBE says the Care Inspectorate’s findings match his own experiences after his wife Amanda passed away at the Bankend Road care home last July, and his calls for a Maggie’s Centre has seen the charity now confirm it is investigating the possibility.
Mr Beaugié, 73, says his wife was transferred from the Alexandra Ward at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary to Allanbank late last February with a combination of multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.
But he said: “The stimulation, depth of care and attention as well as general ‘banter’ did not go with her.
“All previous support was withdrawn and we were left with the GP practice, from Monday to Friday, and Allanbank on minimal staffing.”
With his wife unable to return directly home from hospital due to having developed a bedsore, Mr Beaugié added: “We both felt very much abandoned.”
Mr Beaugié was the founder chairman of D&G Carers Trust Centre.
And he said: “It is unfair to criticise the staff, much of whose time was spent time filling in forms, in many cases in their second language.
“My wife being an empathetic person did not wish to appear demanding and so add to their difficult working circumstances.”
And he added: “The ‘adequate’ rating is not impressive or reassuring for the future.”
Many care homes exist in the region offering palliative, end-of-life care, but Mr Beaugié argues they lack the same level of support as provided in the Alexandra Unit.
He said: “That’s what surprised me – that when she moved from the Alexandra Unit, Macmillan and Marie Curie and all that just fell away.”
Mr Beaugié notes the ‘irony’ that Maggie’s Centres established in the memory of Maggie Keswick Jenks from Holywood near Dumfries exist in 19 locations, some abroad, but with none in the region.
He said: “Up to now the small population did not make a hospice viable.
“With the ‘get em in, get em out’ agenda for the new infirmary and the ageing population, the need can only get greater and soon.”
