THE mother of tragic model Katy French has told how she had to watch her sister die on a mobile phone screen during a Covid outbreak at a home operated by a HSE-funded charity.
Janet French’s sister Alison June Grant is one of four residents at the Valleyview home in the Wicklow village of Rathdrum who contracted the virus at the facility.
Valleyview is run by the Sunbeam House charity where 100 admin staff and managers, many working entirely from home, misrepresented themselves as frontline workers to get vaccinated early.
As revealed by the Irish Mail on Sunday, many such workers were vaccinated within days of the tragic outbreak at Valleyview in which three clients died.
A fourth Valleyview resident, who contracted Covid while in St Vincent’s Hospital, also died.
Alison June Grant was one of the first three residents who died after the Valleyview outbreak.
Mrs French this weekend spoke of the pain at having to witnesses her sister’s heartbreaking last moments on her mobile phone screen.
She told the MoS: ‘I was on the mobile phone with her two or three times a day and I was with her like that when she died.’
Whistleblowers came forward to detail concerns about what happened at Valleyview during the outbreak in the wake of recent revelations in the MoS about staff and managers at Sunbeam receiving early vaccinations ahead of residents in their care.
In protected disclosures, they outline a period during the Christmas holidays when the unit was overwhelmed by the virus.
In their disclosures, the whistleblowers raise concerns about testing and PPE.
‘The National Ambulance Service informed staff that the PPE was of a poor standard for working in a positive environment,’ one whistleblower said.
While acknowledging failures at Sunbeam, Mrs French is anxious to address the wider failures of a system that continues to let down vulnerable people, such as her sister.
She told the MoS: ‘It’s generally known that in this country there has been poor support for the intellectually disabled both before and during this pandemic.’
As a former board member of Sunbeam – who resigned on principle in 2019 – Mrs French knows more than most what the problems are in the sector.
She said these include: ‘An insufficient commitment to maintaining sufficient resources; limited acceptance of responsibility; a general expectation that frontline staff should soldier on at the coalface despite obvious limitations.’
Mrs French added: ‘For many years, resources have been stretched to meet the increasing healthcare needs of the vulnerable as their expected lifespans continue to increase and it’s already acknowledged that residential settings may not be fit for purpose.
‘Worse still, it would appear that intellectually disabled residents in residential settings throughout the country were not prioritised for vaccination in line with those in general nursing homes.
‘Yet this cycle of denial continues from successive governments, from the HSE and from the management of the section 38 charitable organisations involved, including Sunbeam.’
At the height of the January outbreak at Valleyview, almost 30 Sunbeam staff were out of work, either due to Covid infection or as close contacts. In all, 10 of Vallyview’s 12 clients caught Covid – an infection rate of 83%.
According to the whistleblowers, clients at Valleyview first began to display symptoms in the first week of January, quickly followed by careers ‘It’s the system that stinks. It’s dreadful’
‘Things were deteriorating rapidly and clients were becoming seriously illÂ… frontline staff had to sort themselves out with rostersÂ…’ one whistleblower told the MoS.
On January 20 the first fatality occurred. ‘Unfortunately there was no improvement in the resident’s condition – the passing was peaceful – comfortable with a carer present,’ is how a manager informed health watchdog Hiqa by email that evening.
By the time Hiqa was informed of this first death, a female member of the Traveller community, the virus had already done its damage. Of Vallyview’s 12 residents, 10 had already been infected. Within weeks three more would die.
On January 24, Alison June Grant died. According to her sister, Alison was loved by all.
‘It’s not about little Alison and me,’ Mrs French told the MoS. ‘She was tiny and vulnerable and everybody loved her. It’s the system that stinks. It’s dreadful. I can quote you staff who are trying despite all odds to give these poor, vulnerable people some kind of life but it is trial against all odds.
‘There’s no set-up in this country for ageing, vulnerable people. There’s insufficient resources to deal with them properly and when a pandemic comes along it’s not surprising that these homes could not cope.’
Alison’s friend and fellow resident Mary Behan, originally from Co. Clare, died a day later on January 25.
One staff member told the MoS: ‘It was horrendous and very sad. They were great friends in the centre and died within hours of one another.’
Then on Valentine’s day, Jimmy Hogan, originally from Arklow, died. Jimmy’s family told the MoS he contracted the disease from a separate outbreak at St Vincent’s Hospital.
He had been cleared of the virus before returning to Valleyview, but ultimately did not survive.
Correspondence to Sunbeam from Hiqa demonstrates there was some concern about testing and infection controls at the time.
On January 22 – two days after the first death at Valleyview – Hiqa demanded that Sunbeam provide an ‘assurance report’ relating to ‘protection against infection’ and ‘governance and management’ at the facility.
The report was requested by Hiqa after it received ‘unsolicited information’ detailing these concerns.
‘The chief inspector is not assured that Sunbeam House Services CLG has efficient and effective Covid-19 testing systems within their organisation,’ the Hiqa demand reads.
A wider examination of what may have gone wrong at Valleyview is ongoing. But in response to queries from the MoS, Sunbeam issued a statement emphatically denying any breaches of care standards.
‘During this very difficult and challenging Covid-19 period we at Sunbeam House Services have been fully compliant with all public health guidelines,’ the statement said. ‘We emphatically reject any allegation to the contrary.’
The charity did not directly address questions about those who had died. ‘As a matter of policy, we will not comment on an individual client nor would it be appropriate to do so in consideration of privacy law and out of respect for recently bereaved family members,’ the statement said.
Addressing concerns about PPE and mask wearing, Sunbeam said it had ‘strict guidelines and protocols in place for all centres.’
