Failings contributed to death of elderly patient

Nurses admit charges at disciplinary hearing

An elderly care home patient died of sepsis caused by bed sores after nurses failed to provide proper treatment.

Danielle Allan did not carry out a wound swab and failed to keep proper records relating to the woman’s pressure sore. David Paul also failed to perform a wound swab.

The failings contributed to the death of the woman, who was a resident at Beeches Care Home in Dunfermline.

At a disciplinary hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), taking place in Edinburgh this week, Miss Allan admitted a total of three charges and partially admitted another. Mr Paul admitted one charge.

An employee of the care home company who investigated the death of Patient A in February 2015 told the hearing she was “shocked” at Miss Allan’s unwillingness to take “accountability”.

Stephen McCaffrey, presenting the case on behalf of the NMC, said a postmortem examination showed that the cause of death was sepsis, caused by a grade four pressure sore with other supplementary causes of death.

It had been documented in September 2014 that the patient was at great risk of developing a pressure ulcer. She complained to staff of a sore buttock and by the end of January 2015 had developed a pressure ulcer.

On February 6 the patient was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with a grade four pressure ulcer. On February 14 she passed away.

The first witness at the hearing was Karen Johnson, clinical quality manager for HC One, who carried out an investigation into the incident.

She said: “It became clear that we didn’t change the resident’s equipment. We didn’t respond to her care needs.

“The resident developed a grade three pressure ulcer and this was not reported by Danielle Allan or David Paul.

“Grade three or above is classed as a serious incident and a serious incident was not raised. I would have been made aware immediately.

“Normally a situation such as this would have been recorded on our incidence system.

“My main concern was that management were not aware until it was too late.

Mrs Johnson admitted that there were failings on the part of the home and that the incident has forced the company to alter their processes.

Beeches Care Home is run by healthcare management company HC One.

They said they were “deeply disappointed when the significant shortcomings of two former members of staff came to light in 2015”.

They added: “The behaviour of these individuals went against everything we stand for as an organisation, and we have apologised unreservedly to the family for the tragic result of these shortcomings.”

The hearing continues.