‘Nasty’ carer who called patients idiots struck off
A ‘NASTY’ carer refused to assist a vulnerable dementia sufferer who was crying out for help from his bed.
Joanne Docherty decided to turn her back on the elderly man twice while she was working at the care home, despite his legs hanging off the bed and the bed sheets not covering him.
The care assistant forcefully pushed another man with dementia in to a chair, shouted at him and described others vulnerable residents as “idiots”.
Ms Docherty worked at the Ranfurly Care home on Quarelton Road in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, where the incidents took place.
She had been employed at the site for eight years before she was suspended, on June 28, 2016, for her behaviour.
Following a hearing by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) earlier this month, the worker has now been struck off the social care workers’ register.
The SSSC heard from two witnesses about Ms Docherty’s conduct while working at the home, which accommodates up to 60 elderly people.
One of Ms Docherty’s care home colleagues told the SSSC panel that she saw her pushing the elderly man into a lounge chair on June 15, 2016.
Another colleague described her behaviour as “nasty” and said she heard Ms Docherty telling a man with dementia: “I have been up since half four to get ready and listen to idiots like you.”
The fellow care home employee told the panel that Ms Docherty shouted at the same vulnerable man, who spilled his tea, and told him: “If you don’t be quiet you will not get your dinner”.
It was the same resident she didn’t help when he was lying uncomfortably in bed, telling the fellow staff member “he always does that” when she was asked to help him.
The colleague was not allowed to help the residents physically because she was only a domestic member of staff.
Panel members decided Ms Docherty’s conduct towards the first resident who she pushed into a lounge char was putting him “at acute risk of physical and emotional harm.”
They decided the mistreatment of the second resident was “fundamentally incompatible with registration.” and the “behaviour fell well below the standards expected”.
In a report, they stated here was no evidence of insight regret or apology” and the “conduct suggested that you held values and attitudes which could not be easily remedied.
They said she had no previous history of misconduct, but decided on removing her from the social work register for public protection.