A man who died at a Newbridge care home was not receiving the one-to-one care that he should have been, a worker told a court yesterday.

Care assisitant Theresa Hughes was working at the Mountleigh Care Home, New Bryngwyn Road when Alan Sayers’ died.

The dementia suffer, 52, was found dead in his room on September 27, 2004. Seven people are on trial at Newport Crown Court charged with wilful neglect.

Mrs Hughes told the court yesterday that she had worked on a daily basis with Mr Sayers since April 2004.

“He was supposed to be getting one-to-one care, but didn’t get it,” she said.

Mrs Hughes added that she wasn't even shown a care plan for him.

She said that she had to use common sense to work out what one-to-one care meant and that carers were told to do other chores when Mr Sayers was asleep.

It was only after Mr Sayers pulled a wardrobe down, injuring a care worker, that a rota system was brought in, said Mrs Hughes.

Gaynor Manship of the Wales Ambulance Service took an emergency call from the care home on the night Mr Sayers died.

She said: “They said he had a nose bleed. But his condition changed as the conversation went on. They then said he wasn’t conscious and then he wasn’t breathing.”

Mr Sayers’ sister Yvonne Morris went to her parents, Hazel and Lesley’s house in Cross Keys on the morning of his death. General manager Dawn Harris arrived to tell the family Mr Sayers had died of a heart attack.

“We were very shocked. As for as we were concerned, there was nothing wrong with his heart,” she said.

Coroner's officer David Lewis was told by Mr Sayers’ doctor Sushma Ojha that he had died from chronic hypertensive heart disease.

He told the court that he was satisfied with this and did not pass the case on to be investigated in the coroner’s court.

Proceeding.

Home's staff and a doctor deny all charges

Mountleigh Care Home general manager Dawn Harris, 52, of Raglan Mews, Newport and care manager Enda Evans, 56, of Glyn Derw, Caerphilly, are jointly charged with wilfully neglecting Alan Sayers between December 18, 2002 and September 28, 2004.

Care assistants Rosslyn Jenkins, 54, of Alexandra Place, Newbridge, and Michael Lurvey, 54, of Greenfield, Newbridge, qualified nurse Musediq Salisu, 47, of Viscount Evan Drive, Newport, and agency care assistants Margaret Lewis, 60, of Prospect Place, Cwmbran, and Chengeta Kaziboni, 34, of Cowbridge Road West, Cardiff, are jointly charged with wilfully neglecting Alan Sayers between September 25 and September 28 2004.

GP Sushma Ohja, 55, of Hillside Park, Bargoed, is charged with making false representations on Mr Sayers’s death certificate and cremation certificate and also falsely obtaining £50.70 from Gwent Police by claiming she attended the home in her capacity as a police doctor.

Mountleigh Care Home was located in New Bryngwyn Road, Newbridge, but has since reopened under new management, run by Southern Cross Care Homes and is now open under the name of Millview House and Lodge.