My dad was recently in a local care home for respite care. It was all very rushed to get him in (he has dementia, my mum was looking after him and not being too honest about how it was going and it all came to a head).
He was supposed to be in for two weeks but was for there four days and had a seizure (he also has epilepsy, it's a great combination) so he's now been in hospital for a week.
I've been to collect his belongings and his bottom set of dentures have gone missing. He definitely had them when he went in. I've asked them to check a couple of times, they say they have but they can't be found.
So, before I contact them to talk about it and/or stick a complaint in (because it's 500 quid's worth of teeth we're talking about, never mind the fact that he's only got half his teeth to use), I'd like to know what the legalities are around this kinda thing.
I did sign a few forms when I took him in but, frankly, I didn't read them in detail as I just wanted him in there. Am I likely to have signed a "if stuff goes missing it's not our fault" waiver?Â
MIL lost loads of stuff, including her late husband's wedding ring which was on a necklace. They don't give a fark TBH. By all means complain and try and claim for new replacements. It's often other residents pottering in (especially where there are dementia patients). MIL was on a nursing unit, so resident's weren't pottering about - all immobile, so thefts were usually bank staff.Â
From the staff side its not that they don't care, its that the pressures they are under mean this sort of thing is frequent and difficult to avoid.
The home has a responsibility to keep stuff safe.  IME its not other patients. Its just rushed staff.  Patients take teeth and hearing aids out in bed and tbey get bundled up in bedding and end up in laundry. Teeth get dropped and lost.
Teeth should be marked with the patients name but I'll bet its not been done
The home is responsible for safe keeping and will replace but will probably have to be pressured to do so.
Am I likely to have signed a "if stuff goes missing it's not our fault" waiver?Â
Possibly but a waiver does not absolve responsibility for negligence.  There will be policy including marking teeth ( or should be) And this should be documented.  Either no policy of marking teeth or failure to mark them would be negligent  I'll bet they have no documentation to say teeth are marked.Â
They will have insurance but it'll be relatively basic.
IME clothes etc are all marked by the home and it was one of the first jobs by housekeeping.
We occasionally get emails asking if we recognise odd bits of found jewellery, so they do try to keep upÂ
Mum is in a care home. We were warned by the home about valuables and filled in a form about what she had (which wasn't very much - rings and an iPad). Lots of dementia patients wandering about mean nothing is safe.
There's a lot of laundry going on as well so clothes have disappeared despite being labelled. And glasses.Â
You will have signed a form about "stuff" so unless you can prove a member of staff misappropriated or negligently lost the chompers, you likely won't have any leg to stand on.
IME clothes etc are all marked by the home and it was one of the first jobs by housekeeping.
Yeah, this was done while we were there (although I have come away with a pair of trousers that aren't his and missing the jeans he was wearing when he went in, but can live with that)
And they did a full inventory of everything he went in with, which was basically clothes, teeth, hearing aids, razor and meds
Did they mark the teeth is the critical thing IMO / IME? There are teeth marking kits, they are fiddly and time consuming to use and bits of the kits get lost so again IME teeth rarely get marked as they should be. Not marking them is negligence.
Loosing false teeth is commonplace so its not as if this is an unknown occurrence.  Unless they have a documented trail stating his teeth have been marked then they are liable IMO.
Yes the care home may be responsible if they didn`t follow the NICE guidelines .. but I`m pretty sure it would be a very lengthy argument to resolve. Add to the fact that if more respite is requested you`ve just ticked that care home off the list from offering a placement in the future.
I personally would discuss with the care home manager, complain there if so feeling the need. And mindful the dentures need replacing asap; direct your energy to resolving that first.
Not marking them is negligence.
 Actually it isn`t..
The care home could fall back on that they asked the person and person said no to marking them .. I`m even more confident there wasn`t a MCA assessment identifying the person lacked capacity to decide to have false teeth marked or not.
NICE Guidelines (NG48): The NICE explicitly states that during the initial oral health assessment on admission, care staff must record whether dentures are marked or unmarked. If they are unmarked, staff are directed to "ask whether they would like to arrange for marking and offer to help"
Consent Requirements: Because dentures are personal property, the home cannot mark them without consent.
Interesting. Â
 I'll also bet no documentation of any refusal. Every home I worked in it was policy to mark them IIRC - absence of opposition being taken as consent I guess. However actually marking them didn't happen often
Anyway, I've emailed them, figured it's best to have it in writing
My (recently) late Father In Law was in hospital last month and his teeth went missing when he was transferred between wards. The nursing staff wanted to know if he'd had a stroke because he was having trouble talking. He was having trouble talking because they'd lost his ****ing teeth!
He had however gained a mobile phone.
Anyway they reunited him with his teeth a couple of days later.
Then he died. But not because of his teeth (or his new phone).
