In the final months of Mrs Tubb’s life, her daughter recalled the moment she summoned up the strength to tell her she was in “terrible pain”.
“At first I thought she was sore from another fall, but I couldn’t see anything wrong.”
Mrs Gobin asked a carer to change her mother’s incontinence pad while she stayed in the room.
“I knew instantly that something was wrong,” she said. “She was covered in blisters – she must have been in horrific pain. I exploded, I was distraught.”
Despite paying hundreds of pounds a week for her mum’s care, Mrs Gobin says she had to go to a pharmacy to buy her some soothing cream.
“People might blame the lack of resources or staff, but this was basic hygiene and care, it’s shocking,” she said.
Mrs Tubb died, aged 78, after contracting Covid in December 2022.
Mrs Gobin, who is calling for an independent review of her mother’s care, told the BBC the CQC initially failed to respond to her concerns.
A spokesman for the regulator said: “In January 2023, we received some information of concern from the relative of someone who had been living at St Luke’s about their care during 2022, which CQC didn’t follow up on until they contacted us again in April 2023, which prompted an inspection of the home in May 2023.
“We apologised to them for not acting as quickly as we should have on the information that they gave us and offered them a meeting with us so they could understand what happened.”
