THE owners of a care home that kicked out an 87-year-old client with dementia claimed that they did so because of incidents involving her family.

Dorothy Derbyshire spent weeks in hospital after leaving The Orchards in Wroughton but has since found a new place to live, as reported in Saturday’s Adver.

A Buckland Care spokeswoman said: “The decision to give Dorothy notice was not a decision we took lightly.”

“It was given in writing in June 2019 to Swindon Borough Council (who were funding Mrs Derbyshire’s care), to Mrs Derbyshire verbally by her social worker and to Mrs Derbyshire’s son during a meeting. The reason behind it was that the management were repeatedly assaulted both physically and verbally by the Derbyshire family.

“As a company we have a duty of care to our staff and residents to protect them from abuse. We have a zero-tolerance policy for abuse. Our staff did not feel safe leaving or entering the home by themselves.

“Residents were becoming distressed in their home. We had to make the difficult decision to give Mrs Derbyshire notice. We wish her all the best in her new care home.”

The family strongly disputes these allegations.

Son Peter Derbyshire said: “That is absolutely ridiculous, it’s not the truth. .

“The care home never told me about her being given notice either, I found out through the social worker.”