Alice, 108, starves in care protest

A woman aged 108 starved herself to death after her nursing home was closed down.

Alice Knight was so distraught at having to move out of her private residential care home in Norwich that when she was transferred to another one, she refused to eat and slowly wasted away.

Despite efforts from staff at the new home to get her to eat and support from her family, the pensioner who was in good health, simply gave up in protest.

Her death comes as a result of the crisis affecting nursing homes, which are suffering from a lack of funding as they struggle to cover costs for maintaining standards. As many as 800 a year are being forced to close down.

Mrs Knight, a great-great grandmother and one of the oldest people in Britain, had lived happily at Flordon House for six years.

She was devastated when care home bosses said it had to close because they could not afford the refurbishment and modernisation costs needed for them to meet the required standards.

Mrs Knight was moved to nearby Laurel Lodge residential home. Although she received the same level of care from staff, Mrs Knight missed her old home and began to give up.

Mrs Knight's granddaughter Diane Self, 58, said: "She made the conscious decision not to live and starved herself to death. She would have been alive today if it had not been for the move."

A spokesman for Laurel Lodge said Mrs Knight was "reasonably bright" when she arrived at the home but kept saying she wanted to go home. "In her mind she had been moved from her home. She had to get used to new surroundings and new care staff. At 108 that's a traumatic experience and she couldn't cope with it.

"For the last month we had her, all we could do was to encourage her to drink cups of tea. Her doctor prescribed liquid food but she wouldn't even drink that."

"She totally gave up and kept saying she didn't want to be in this world any more, it was very very sad."

Mrs Self said the family had to watch her grandmother get "thinner and thinner".

She said: "It was awful. Her dignity was taken away from her in the last month of her life, it's a tragedy that we can treat our old people like this."

While she lived at Flordon House, Mrs Knight was happy and very independent and was able to wash and dress herself, making sure to put a piece of jewellery on every day. Doctors said that before she was moved, Mrs Knight had at least another two years of life ahead of her.

Mrs Self said staff at Laurel Lodge were "entirely blameless" for Mrs Knight's death.

The new minimum standards for care homes, which include having to provide larger rooms and single occupancy from 2005, have added to the problem of a cash shortage.

A Help The Aged spokesman said: "We support the introduction of the new standards but this tragic case highlights the problems being faced by the care home sector.

"There is simply not enough money to assist them in bringing existing properties up to standard and not enough time to build new homes. Consequently many are being sold, forcing elderly and vulnerable people out of what has become their only home."