Bermuda’s seniors are receiving “deplorable” care in residential facilities and private homes across the Island yet the authorities are failing to act, it has been alleged.

An investigation by The Royal Gazette has uncovered a number of cases where elderly people are distressed by the level of care provided to them or appear to have been failed by their professional caregivers or relatives.

Yet the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged (NOSPC) has not properly responded to the complaints or helped the individuals find more suitable accommodation, according to those interviewed by this newspaper.

Our inquiry suggests the NOSPC, which is responsible both for inspecting residential facilities and handling complaints about elder abuse and neglect, is struggling to carry out its duties, leading to some complainants never hearing back from the office and others feeling their concerns are not being taken seriously.

One man told us: “I have been trying to get help for my sister from the National Office. I was there four, five, six times. I left my name and number for a case worker to call me and it seems like nobody cares. Nobody gives me a call.”

Although 34 complaints of elder abuse were made to the office between January and October last year, none led to prosecutions under the Senior Abuse Register Act 2008 — a law introduced specifically to protect the elderly and to penalise those who mistreat them.

We discovered that:

• An 81-year-old man who developed “severe” bedsores in Sunny Vale Rest Home in Paget was removed from the facility by concerned members of the public because the NOSPC did not feel a move was necessary;

• Another man, aged 69, refused to return to Sunny Vale, after having his leg amputated in hospital, because he was so unhappy at the rest home;

• A third man died while a resident at Sunny Vale in 2012 and one of the causes of his death was severe malnutrition;

• The family of an 89-year-old woman was told that she could not move from Packwood Nursing Home in Somerset, despite repeated requests from relatives, because there was nowhere suitable to send her; and

• A man who tried to make a complaint of senior neglect after finding his 76-year-old sister lying in her own urine in bed at the home she shared with her son and daughter-in-law was ignored by staff at the NOSPC and never had his calls returned.

Age Concern executive director Claudette Fleming said: “These are stories that must be told.”

The charity boss, referring to Health Minister Jeanne Atherden’s recent pledge to restructure the NOSPC in 2015 and increase care home inspections, added: “Promises can be made but they are not always kept. It’s important that these stories be put in the forefront of the public’s mind.”

Derrick Burgess, the Shadow Minister for Seniors, said: “Bermuda is in desperate need of a review of its facilities for seniors. The care provided to the elderly in our rest and nursing homes needs to be scrutinised.

“The oversight provided by Government is ineffective when dealing with abuse, negligence and infringements of the Residential Care Homes and Nursing Homes Act 1999 and the Residential Care Homes and Nursing Homes Regulations 2001.”

Ms Atherden said in a statement last September: “As far as our Island’s rest homes are concerned, the Ministry continues to actively monitor and ensure that rest homes meet the required standards.”

She added: “Accusations by the Opposition that this Government has somehow ‘abandoned’ its seniors couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

But she admitted two months later that she had concerns about the NOSPC “being responsible for the licensing and inspecting of care homes, and also being the recipient of complaints for those same homes”.

She said the roles should be separated and that she had asked Ministry of Health staff how a separation could be accomplished.

“We have implemented a process of the monthly reporting of complaints to have an ongoing complaints register,” the Minister told Members of Parliament.

“Further, in terms of visits and inspections, changes have been made to the residential care facilities visiting process so they now occur three times per year: two scheduled and one unscheduled. This process will assist with ensuring that all homes comply with the requirements of the legislation.”

Elizabeth Stewart, from the charity Action on Alzheimer’s and Dementia, said that was still “inadequate”.

She said: “You shouldn’t have scheduled inspections at all. It gives ample time for somebody to prepare and make everything look fine. You should have more than one unscheduled visit a year.”

Mr Burgess said that change cannot come soon enough and he repeated his call for an independent body to have oversight of residential homes.

The Progressive Labour Party politician claimed the NOSPC, which is being run by a civil servant seconded from another department until the end of March, was not properly looking into “numerous” complaints of “deplorable care” of seniors and was not ensuring that those guilty of providing inadequate or neglectful care were penalised.

But the Ministry of Health told this newspaper that the NOSPC was working hard to improve its services and should still be the first port of call for anyone with a complaint of elder abuse or neglect.

“The intent was never to have NOSPC as the primary source for investigating claims of senior abuse but, rather, for NOSPC to utilise other resources in order to do that — in particular, the Police,” a spokeswoman said.

“For example, NOSPC does not have the ability to look into one’s financial history if it is a case of financial abuse. In that instance, we forward the case to the Police (CID) for investigation.”

She added: “The Senior Abuse Registrar regularly undertakes actions to ensure the welfare and safety of seniors who may be the victim of senior abuse. All reports of senior abuse should be reported using a senior risk referral form, which is available at the National Office at the Continental Building, on the corner of Church Street and Cedar Avenue [in Hamilton].”

This newspaper is not aware of any homes being prosecuted for breaching the Residential Care Homes and Nursing Homes Regulations.

And none of the cases we uncovered have led to action being taken under the Senior Abuse Register Act. The law, which was heralded at the time of its passage through Parliament as a way to protect the Island’s growing elderly population from physical, sexual and psychological abuse, financial exploitation and long-term neglect, has barely been used since it came into effect in March 2008.

This newspaper has reported on only one successful prosecution — that of Lorraine Smith and Audra-Ann Bean in April 2012 for stealing almost half a million dollars from their grandmother. Their names are now on the confidential Senior Abuse Register, along with one other unidentified individual.

Our inquiry highlights both how little the existing laws to protect seniors are being used and how difficult it can be for elderly people and their families to find appropriate long-term care on the Island.

The owner of Sunny Vale, for example, insists she told the NOSPC that her facility could not provide the nursing care needed by the 81-year-old man who developed bedsores but got no assistance.

Staff at Packwood say the NOSPC is badly understaffed and a task force for the elderly should be set up immediately to ensure that seniors’ needs are understood and met, wherever they are spending their final years.

Ms Atherden said in November last year: “Going forward, we at the Ministry will ... be focusing on improving the quality of care being provided at residential care homes. We have to be concerned about ... the physical environment of facilities but, at the same time, we need to ensure the quality of care is of the highest standard.

“Our legislation speaks mostly to staffing levels, environmental conditions and the physical environment provided at homes, but the quality of care provisions are not sufficiently strong.”

• The NOSPC can be reached on 292-7802.