Orchid View

Orchid View was a private care home in Copthorne, West Sussex, England, run by Southern Cross Healthcare, at the time the largest provider of care homes and long term care beds in the United Kingdom, operating more than 750 homes with over 37,000 beds. In late 2011 two staff members at Orchid View were arrested on suspicion of ill treatment and neglect of residents, and the home was closed that same year before later reopening under new management and a different name. A 2013 inquest into the deaths of nineteen residents found that neglect had contributed to five of those deaths, with West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield ruling that the home was riddled with what she termed institutionalised abuse, citing an absence of respect for residents' dignity, poor nutrition and hydration, mismanaged medication, understaffing, and call bells that went unanswered for long periods or could not be reached. The regulator, the Care Quality Commission, had rated Orchid View good as recently as 2010, and a subsequent Serious Case Review made thirty recommendations aimed at preventing what the Department of Health called truly appalling care from happening again.