‘Dementia link to sudden low blood pressure and dizziness’
October 13, 2024
A nurse who allowed a dementia patient to be locked overnight in a ‘dangerous and frightening’ cupboard while she was ‘sweating, shivering and suffering hallucinations’ has been struck off.
Supervisor Heather Davies, 55, advised a colleague to push the patient’s bed into an equipment storeroom so she would not disturb others on the ward at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
The woman – who had been distressed and shouting for about one hour – was then left shivering and sweating in the cupboard for six hours.
According to an investigation into the incident, the patient was not given a call bell and was delirious during the episode.
Davies has now been banned from work for 18 months after a panel found her behaviour amounted to misconduct.
Ruling that her fitness to practice was impaired, the panel said the patient’s ‘privacy and dignity’ had been compromised and that her failure to move the patient was ‘deplorable’.
It ruled: ‘She (Davies) did not assess the patient’s overall needs nor did she conduct a safety risk assessment or instruct anyone else to do so.
‘Patient A was suffering from delirium and felt as if she was falling, Mrs Davies should have conducted a full assessment of her condition or instructed another member of staff to do so.’
The incident unfolded on the Cherry Tree Ward – which is generally for elderly patients with conditions such as dementia – in May 2015.
The hearing was told how, when the patient began shouting, the nurse assigned to care for her decided to move her to the corridor.
But when she asked Davies where she could take her, Davies explained that the patient’s bed would not fit into a doctor’s room and that she needed to take her somewhere with double doors, such as the equipment room.
The report said the patient was left in the dark, with an open window, for six hours.
Davies was put under review when an assistant reported the incident. The probe ruled the room was ‘unacceptable, dangerous and frightening’.
In a statement, she said: ‘I have repeatedly pointed out that I did not carry out this action, and I certainly do not condone it, but as I was the nurse in charge of the ward at the time, I do accept some responsibility for failing to act in the correct manner to prevent the incident from happening in the first place.’
The NMC imposed the 18-month ban because they said there was a risk of repetition.
Source Mail Online