MSP urges elderly services review after Isabella tragedy

Published on Monday 4 January 2010 08:34

THE Scottish Government is being urged to order a national review of services to support elderly people living alone, following the case of an Edinburgh pensioner who lay dead for five years before her body was discovered.

Isabella Purves was found in her flat in Rodney Street, Canonmills, on 2 July last year. Police officers were forced to break down her front door and push their way through years of unopened mail.

Now Tory MSP Nanette Milne has written to health secretary Nicola Sturgeon calling for a national review of services to support elderly folk living alone.

She said: "The case of Isabella Purves raised questions as to what help our society provides to support elderly residents living alone."