����ý

A care firm has been told to apologise for sending a grieving widow a "cease and desist" letter as she tried to find out what happened to her husband.

Howard Green died of dementia and heart failure at the Cae Bryn home in Wrexham at the age of 79 in July 2017.

His wife Nita was unhappy with his care, but the home cleared itself following an internal investigation.

The ombudsman found the care records were missing or incomplete, and said the Greens had suffered "injustice".

The home, now part of the Highfield care home, is part of the Pendine Park Care Organisation Ltd, controlled by Care Forum Wales chair Mario Kreft and his wife Gillian.

The care home management said actions had been implemented since Mr Green's death and the home had been given a positive inspection in 2019.

Mr Green, from Ewloe, Flintshire, could not speak after suffering a stroke in 2011 and suffered from vascular dementia, moving into Cae Bryn in May 2017 after a spell in hospital.

His wife had been unhappy with his care and embarked on a quest to recover his care records after his death.

However, the company noted her complaints, exonerated itself in an internal investigation in November 2017, and "misplaced" his records, according to the ombudsman, Nick Bennett.

Mrs Green continued to seek answers, and said she "cried her eyes out" when she received a solicitor's letter in October 2019, telling her to "cease to send any further correspondence" to the home and its staff.

The letter said her complaint had been dealt with and the inquiry had "conclusively determined no wrongdoing within Pendine Park's organisation".

Mr Bennett described the move as "poor practice", and said he was "disappointed" the letter claimed the complaint had been dismissed while he was still investigating the matter.

The probe by the complaints watchdog also found Mr Green's medication had been stopped with "no explanation" and "without a valid reason" - and medical advice had not been sought in a "timely manner" twice during his three-month stay at the home.

In addition, a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) had not been applied for on behalf of the vulnerable patient when it should have been.

In response, Pendine Park director Gill Hughes said she was "confident" the level of care Mr Green received "was first class and appropriate", although she said the company "acknowledged that there was an issue in relation to the retrieval of the file which was resolved".

Ms Hughes added that actions had been implemented since Mr Green's death and the home had been given a positive inspection in 2019.

The company has been told to apologise to Mrs Green, pay her £500 in "recognition of the distress she has suffered", and to improve training and record keeping.

Mrs Green said her husband's death had "destroyed her".

"If I had the choice of dying with dementia or cancer, please God let it be cancer because I would have a choice of having medication or not," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"But Howard didn't have a choice because he couldn't speak."