Council fined over death of man with dementia who went missing from Barra care home

A council has been fined £80,000 following the death of a care home resident who went missing on the Isle of Barra before being discovered injured.

Allan MacLeod was able to leave his bedroom at St Brendan’s Care Home in Castlebay without the knowledge of staff on March 9 last year.

The 69-year-old was discovered with facial injuries consistent with falling around four hours after he was reported missing from his room during hourly checks.

An investigation found that Mr MacLeod had exited the home through the only door that was not alarmed, ten metres from his bedroom, to avoid being observed by staff.

Staff were unable to find him during a search of the home before police were alerted. Coastguard, RNLI and firefighters were also called out to help with the search.

He was eventually found near the home, on the patio of a residential property, by a Coastguard helicopter.

Mr MacLeod was taken to hospital but died an hour later.

Western Isles Council pled guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act following the death.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered that Mr MacLeod had made several previous attempts to leave the home.

Measures that staff had taken to prevent him from leaving, including fitting an electronic tag to his clothing that indicated his whereabouts, were unsuccessful due to him removing them.

A risk assessment carried out in December 2023 indicated that Mr MacLeod would remove a tag if he located it and that staff needed to be vigilant of this behaviour.

It was only after his death that the home introduced a regime of half-hourly checks on residents. Arrangements had already been made to install keypad entry systems on all doors, but this work had not been completed before Mr MacLeod’s death.

The council was fined £80,000 at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court on August 6.

HSE inspector Ashley Fallis said: “This was a tragic and preventable death.

“The council should have made sure the home had stronger measures in place with Mr MacLeod’s risks already known and assessed.

“Although changes have since been made, they came too late to prevent his death.”