Health visitor hit with suspension

A HEALTH visitor who put a note detailing sex abuse in the wrong family’s file has been suspended.

An inquiry was told that Lesley Finch wrote a note detailing the abuse of a child on the back of an assessment letter from a unit that supports children with special needs.

However, two witnesses told an inquiry that the note, “did not concern the child who was the subject of the letter”.

In another incident, she was involved in, a family affected by domestic abuse were not visited until almost a year after an incident was reported.

The charges arose while Mrs Finch was employed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as a Health Visitor in the Johnstone area.

An investigation was carried out by the health board, however the disciplinary process was not concluded because she retired in 2015.

The note detailing sexual abuse was written on the back of a form for a child under the care of the Panda Centre, which supports children with additional needs.

An inquiry found: “Mrs Finch had not identified who the handwritten notes related to.”

Another charge found proved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council is that she failed to make checks on a family affected by domestic abuse.

Mrs Finch took a telephone call on August 28, 2012, and was i nformed about an incident.

She recorded the incident in the family’s files but a visit was not carried out until February 2013.

The health visitor claimed she put a note of the call in a ‘team tray’ then went on annual leave.When she returned, the note was gone and she assumed it had been dealt with.

In another incident she was involved in, a pregnant woman who had been transferred into a new area and was addicted to heroin was not visited for five weeks.

The mother was not seen until the case was transferred to another health worker.

A panel of the NMC noted Mrs Finch had had a long career in nursing had been experiencing “difficult personal and professional circumstances” at the time of the incidents.

She was suspended for six months, which will follow an 18-month interim suspension, if no appeal is made by the nurse.