MARGARET, 77, DIED AFTER BEING PUSHED IN CARE HOME

'Cruel twist of fate' led to grandmother's death

- by LIAM THORP

A MUCH-LOVED grandmother died after being pushed over by a resident at a care home that she should not have been placed in.

A coroner has now produced a prevention of future deaths report around the culture and training at the care home, after multiple failings were recorded. A coroner said he had concerns that further lives could be at risk at the home.

Margaret Medlicott, who was from Merseyside but had moved to Hereford in later life, died at The County Hospital in Hereford on May 3, 2020, 10 days after being pushed over by a fellow resident at the Haresbrook Park Care Home in Worcestershire. Both Mrs Medlicott and the resident who pushed her had advanced dementia.

At an inquest into the death of the 77-year-old at Worcestershire Coroner's Court, which concluded earlier this month, senior coroner David Reid found that neither Mrs Medlicott, nor the resident who pushed her, should have been placed at Haresbrook Park because of restrictions the home was under.

These restrictions were put in place after the Care Quality Commission, which regulates care homes, published critical reports about Haresbrook Park.

Ms Medlicott was born in Southport during the Second World War in 1942 and was then raised in Bootle. Her family said she grew up just a stone's throw from the River Mersey with her two sisters and two brothers, who she was extremely close to.

After meeting and marrying Edward Medlicott in 1960, the couple emigrated to Canada and then lived in the United States before moving back to Merseyside six years later, because Margaret "couldn't bear to be away from her family".

Margaret always worked, even when she had small children, with a variety of jobs including being a switchboard operator, a factory manager and a wages clerk. Her favourite job was working at the Job Centre in Hereford, where the couple settled in 1998 - although Margaret returned to Merseyside every other weekend.