MP blasts ‘disgrace’ as appeal over bullying chief nurse rejected
A“LENIENT” suspension of a chief nurse who bullied and intimidated staff and ignored serious safety concerns will not be overturned, despite an outcry.
A disciplinary panel found 34 charges proved against Helen Lockett, former executive nurse of the disgraced Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust (LCH), which ran mental health, community and prison health care services between 2010 and 2018.
In February, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which regulates the register of nurses able to practise in the UK, published a controversial ruling, suspending Ms Lockett for 12 months.
Although the NMC pushed for her to be struck off, the suspension was decided by an independent disciplinary panel.
The NMC, under fire for its failure to secure a permanent ban, referred the decision to the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) which has the power to appeal against decisions to the High Court.
This week the PSA announced it would not refer the decision to the High Court - effectively meaning there could be a route back into nursing for Ms Lockett at the end of the suspension period.
The PSA said: “The authority considered this case at a case meeting on April 20.
“It decided not to refer the case to the courts because, having regard to all the facts in the case and the panel’s findings, it could not be satisfied that the panel’s decision to impose the second most serious sanction available to it and which had the effect of preventing the registrant from practising until she has satisfied the panel that she is fit to practise, was insufficient to protect the public.”
West Lancashire Labour MP Rosie Cooper, who referred Ms Lockett to the NMC, reacted angrily to the announcement.
She said: “This decision will frighten every good, decent hard working nurse. It is simply a disgrace.
“It should petrify the public who fund our NHS services to know that at the end of the day, they can be harmed by errant disregard for their safety and it is only luck, whistleblowers and the media who can deliver justice.
“It is time that both these regulatory bodies faced an overhaul. They are, rather amazingly, part of the problem.”
Ms Lockett’s former colleagues, Debbie Moore, head of prison healthcare, and senior nurses Paul Lawrence and Deborah Dickerson had already been cleared of any wrongdoing and told they had no case to answer.
An independent review into LCH, chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup and published in 2018, found multiple failings, describing it as a “dysfunctional” organisation with a “bullying culture” that failed staff and patients in the period between 2010 and 2014.
Last year, health minister Stephen Hammond also announced a new independent inquiry into the trust over fears that 150 deaths were not investigated properly.
Ms Lockett, who resigned in 2014 alongside chief executive Bernie Cuthel, had been suspended from practising as a nurse on an interim basis since 2016, when the NMC began investigating her role in the trust.
LCH was later disbanded and its services are run by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
Despite stopping short of striking Ms Lockett off, the independent disciplinary panel, described how she failed to act on numerous warnings about problems within LCH.
In one case, the panel heard she had been presented with an internal report by a colleague in 2011 identifying problems with staffing, training, equipment, medicine administration, and patient safety.
The panel heard that she acknowledged the report in an email, urging her colleague “not to share it any further” due to the “reputational damage” it could cause LCH.
The Care Quality Commission inspected the trust in 2014 and found it was failing to meet standards, specifically identifying issues with equipment, staffing numbers and staff training.
Ms Lockett also failed to raise concerns to the board of governors about the deaths of inmates at HMP Liverpool and failed to escalate the fact that a district nurse was sexually assaulted and held hostage by a patient on a visit to his home.
Other allegations including bullying and intimidation of staff, including telling the colleague who wrote the 2011 report that her 35 years in nursing were a “big waste of time” and she was “incapable of doing her job”.
But the disciplinary panel said: “The panel was satisfied that there was a wealth of evidence that, with the exception of the three years you spent at LCH, you were a successful nurse and leader who made a positive contribution to the NHS and the personal development of many of the more junior nurses with whom you worked.
“Although the panel has determined that there is a risk of repetition, it did not consider that this risk was so significant as to warrant a striking-off order.
“The panel determined that it was not in the public interest to permanently remove such an experienced and respected nurse from practice.”
Clare Strickland, deputy director of fitness to practise at the NMC said: “We referred this case to the Professional Standards Authority in February, as we believed that in light of the independent panel’s findings and NMC guidance, a 12-month suspension order was not sufficient.
“After careful consideration, the PSA has decided not to refer this case to the High Court.
“We respect their decision and the sanction remains a 12-month suspension order.
“This means Ms Lockett will be unable to practise as a nurse for the duration of the suspension. The sanction will be reviewed before the end of the 12-month period.”