A DISTRAUGHT family of an elderly woman who died after a fall at a council run care home want a rule change after staff failed to give her medical aid.

Rosemary Millard, 95, of Catterick Garrison, died after she suffered a fractured left hip in a fall at the North Yorkshire County Council run Brentwood Lodge.

Staff at the centre, in Leyburn, checked to see if Mrs Millard was okay after the Boxing Day fall and claim she said she was fine.

They did not get medical aid or ask for an x-ray to assess her at the care home where she was getting respite care.

Vivienne Squirrel, a Brentwood care worker, said: "I heard a thud in the hallway and went running out to find her.

"I checked her over and she seemed to be in no pain and I asked her if she was and she said no.

"I got her up the next day and she seemed fine and I checked her again and she walked through for her breakfast."

Mrs Millard’s daughter Judith and her husband Gavin came to pick her up that day and found her in a wheelchair and ashen faced.

They say Mrs Millard, a dementia sufferer, was taken home to Constantine Avenue and screamed in pain whenever she was touched.

A doctor was called and Mrs Millard, a widower, was taken to the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

There the hip fracture was found and Mrs Millard died in the hospital on Friday, February 13.

Gavin Cleminson, Mrs Millard’s son-in-law, said after the inquest: "We want to change the policy of the county council run homes.

"I can’t understand how carers at the home can make a medical decision that would take a doctor years of study to be able to do.

"We can’t put right what’s happened but we don’t want it to happen again.

"If someone has a fall we want an ambulance to be called to take them to hospital for an x-ray or for a doctor to check them out.

"If someone has a fall they should be taken to hospital quickly. If that had happened then this could have had a different outcome.

"I don’t think the hospital or ambulance staff will complain if people are taken for an x-ray to make sure things are all right."

Michael Oakley, coroner for the eastern district of North Yorkshire, recorded a verdict of accidental death.

A county council spokesman said: "We pass on our sincere sympathies to the family of Mrs Millard for their loss.

"We are always saddened and concerned when anyone dies having been in our care. In circumstances such as these it is important for us to review our policies."