Nurse’s racist comments about staff
A DERBYSHIRE nurse made racist remarks about colleagues, a misconduct hearing heard.
Mental health nurse Melanie Hayes made the remarks behind the backs of black and Asian colleagues the day she was due to leave her job.
A Fitness to Practise Committee at the Nursing and Midwifery Council was told that Hayes, who worked for Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, referred to one of her colleagues as a “f ****** P***”.
Hayes, who worked in the early interventions team supporting people experiencing psychosis, also told staff in the room she hoped her new job would be better as she would be “working with a team of white people”.
She admitted making the offensive comments. Hayes, who has been suspended, no longer works as a nurse.
She was not present at the hearing on Monday and had indicated she was content for it to proceed in her absence.
The hearing was told it was not the first time she had made such remarks, with allegations coming to light about incidents while working at Nottinghamshire NHS Foundation Trust. On both of these occasions the people who the remarks were directed towards were not in the room. The incidents were not reported at the time and only came to light after the allegations about her behaviour in Derbyshire were raised.
These allegations related to her behaviour on May 8, 2018, when she was in the nurses’ office on her last day before leaving for unrelated matters.
When one person said goodbye to Hayes, she responded by saying words to the effect of “hopefully the new job will be better than this one as I will be working with a team of white people”.
When Hayes was asked to explain what she meant, she responded with words to the effect of “you got a f ****** African who cannot manage a team and a f ****** P*** who cannot make clinical decisions”.
None of the people she was referring to were in the room, although the person Hayes had been speaking to later told them what she had said.
At the hearing, Hayes admitted the allegations and that this amounted to misconduct.
A spokesperson for Derbyshire Healthcare Trust said: “The trust will not tolerate discriminatory behaviour of any kind and will take action against any colleague who makes racist remarks of this nature.”