Moss View Care Home said the wellbeing of residents is its highest priority and will complete a thorough investigation into Mr Worthington’s claims
10:31, 10 Aug 2025Updated 10:31, 10 Aug 2025
Simon Worthington is concerned with his mum’s end of Life care(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
A heartbroken son said he feels his dying mum was failed by a care system which allowed her to ‘fall through the cracks’. Simon Worthington has made a formal complaint to Moss View Care Home in Huyton regarding his mum’s end-of-life care and the ‘poor management’ of her personal hygiene.
Mr Worthington also raised concerns about red marks he claims to have seen when visiting his mum and a particularly upsetting incident when she told him staff had ‘physically restrained’ her. A spokesperson for Moss View Care Home said: “The wellbeing of our residents is our highest priority, and we take all feedback from families very seriously.
“We are currently in the process of completing a thorough investigation following a formal complaint from Mr Worthington last week and we aren’t able to comment on the details until this due process has been concluded.”
Mr Worthington said his mum, Bernadette Lorna Worthington, passed away in May at the age of 62, just three weeks after being diagnosed with vascular dementia. Mr Worthington said his mum spent the last year of her life as a resident at Moss View Care home and received full nursing care due to her illness and being bed-bound.
Simon Worthington raised concerns about his mum’s end of life care(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Moss View Care Home is part of the HC One care company and is described on its website as a purpose-built facility with 77 beds, offering residential, nursing and residential dementia care. An Ofsted inspection completed in March 2025 rated the home as ‘Good’ after making significant improvements since a ‘requires improvement’ rating in September 2021.
The latest report noted: “People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff protected their privacy and dignity. Staff responded to people in a timely way.”
Asked to describe his mum and talk a little about her life, Mr Worthington remembers a loving, caring and dedicated woman, mother and friend who spent a large part of her adult life as a full-time carer. He added: “She was an outgoing, bubbly woman and she’d do anything for anyone.
“She’d looked after a lot of family members and she’d nursed a relative when they were diagnosed with cancer. All she ever did was was look after other people, but sadly I think she was let down at the end.”
Mr Worthington said he appreciates working in a care home is extremely difficult and looking after people with dementia can be particularly challenging, but feels as though the care his mum received at Moss View could have been better, he added: “Some of the care she got was really good, but when, when times got tough, she always fell through the cracks.
A cherished photograph of Simon Worthington’s mum, Bernadette Lorna Worthington(Image: Family handout)
“My mum did have some lovely carers that used to look after her, especially at home, and she did become close to some of them, but there’s been multiple times when she’s been failed.
“I think she was neglected at times and her end of life care wasn’t up to scratch. The management of her personal hygiene wasn’t great. That might have been because she was telling the staff she didn’t need help with hygiene, but she had dementia.
“I remember visiting her in September last year and she had two red marks on her neck. Another time I went to visit her, she said she’d been physically restrained by a carer and was visibly upset.”
Speaking about his mother, Mr Worthing added: “She was a very proud woman, but sadly, her personal hygiene suffered when the dementia hit and I wish the care home had managed that better.
“When I look back at the end of her life, I wish a lot of things were managed better. It made a very stressful time even more stressful.”
A spokesperson for Moss View Care Home added: “We remain in regular contact with Mr Worthington, and we are committed to ensuring that his concerns are dealt with in an appropriate and swift manner.”