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A CARE home where a 91-year-old woman froze to death did not have facilities to check room temperatures, a court has heard.

Annie Barritt was found cold in her bed at Oaklands Country Rest Home, in Kirk Hammerton, near York, in November 2012.

She was not breathing and her temperature did not register on a standard thermometer when a nurse found the resident in bed.

Mrs Barritt’s family had noticed the unit’s heating did not work at times, and York Crown Court heard yesterday staff had no way of measuring how hot or cold it was in the rooms and were left to make their own decision on whether a room was warm enough.

James Maxwell-Scott, defending Maria Mallaband Care Group Ltd, said this was the first death of this kind the care home had experienced.

York Press:

He said practices were in place to register faults in the care home, but inspections from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) North Yorkshire County Council and a Clinical Commissioning Group did not hold them to account for failing to measure temperatures.

In mitigation he said: “They are all bodies that visited the home and none of them said ‘you are falling short of industry practice by not installing thermometers or recording temperatures.’ “It was a responsive and responsible organisation.

“If a check was required it would have been attended to.

“After this very sad event the defendant installed thermometers in all of its 2,600 rooms across its estate.”

Mrs Barritt was taken to Harrogate District Hospital when she was found in her bed but died there later the same day.

Her core temperature was 25.3 degrees centigrade, nearly ten degrees below the hypothermia threshold of 35 degrees.

David Hercock, prosecuting for Harrogate District Council, said staff at the hospital had warned the home days before her death she needed to be kept warm, but the advice was ignored. She suffered from dementia and low body temperature.

The court heard the company has a turnover of £10million but last year had an operating loss of £4.2 million compared to a £1.78million operating loss in 2014/15.

Judge Paul Batty, QC, said he will sentence the organisation today after taking time to consider the mitigation.