Care Boss And A Box Of Teeth.

Manchester Evening News

A former care home manager kept about five sets of elderly patients’ teeth in a box without any labels, it is claimed. Vera Graham, 61, allegedly failed to maintain patients’ dignity and faces 11 charges of professional misconduct when she managed and part-owned Hollinbrook House in Littleborough. The registered nurse is alleged to have delayed reporting a claim of a serious sexual offence by a male nurse against an elderly woman. She is also alleged to have failed to ensure adequate stocks of basic provisions such as underwear, incontinence pads and toilet paper were kept at the home.

Solicitor Bill Leason, for the council, said one witness at the three-day hearing would claim that Mrs Graham told her “not to discuss” the alleged sexual offence until she had “slept on it” and decided what to do. Mrs Graham is alleged to have reported the accusation to the police the next day after a health inspector asked why it had not been reported. Mr Leason said another witness would also say that there had been a shortage of incontinence pads, with only one packet for all 29 patients. He said one patient’s relative would say she was concerned that other patients were wearing her mother’s clothes and on one occasion the elderly woman was not wearing her own underwear.

Mrs Graham, who owned the home with her husband and two other people, was in charge of the day-to-day management of the home. She ceased to be manager in January 2002 and her registration at the home was cancelled later that year.