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A team leader of a care home in Beaumont Leys, Leicester, has been accused of ‘wilfully neglecting a person who lacks capacity’, after she left a dementia sufferer under her care in agony for four hours with a broken thigh.

It has been alleged that team leader Sarah Bewley, who works at the George Hythe House care home, was asked to attend to an elderly female resident, who had dementia and was unable to communicate or speak, who had suffered a fall and was screaming in pain. Care assistant Gwen Martin responded to the 89-year-old’s call for assistance, finding that she had been pushed over by another resident, and went to her supervisor to request medical assistance for the woman.

Ms Bewley was reportedly too busy with paperwork relating to a recently deceased patient to respond, despite apparently being asked more than once to assess the patient’s condition and authorise medical attention for her.

A jury will decide who, if anyone, was to blame for the woman’s suffering, but it is likely that improvements to care training standards, as well as internal procedures and practices at the facility, will be recommended.