Nurse struck off for lie about missing patient

ABIRMINGHAM nurse who lied about reporting a missing vulnerable patient – later found dead following a heroin overdose – has been struck off.

Denesh Chooramun was a senior staff nurse at Woodbourne Priory Hospital, in Woodbourne Road, Edgbaston, which provides treatment for a range of addictions and support for behavioural addictions.

Chooramun failed to complete a risk assessment when the patient left the ward, did not record the time he first became aware that the patient was missing and lied to the ward manager that he had called the police. Patient A was admitted to the ward on December 13, 2019, following an overdose of heroin a day earlier. The patient had a diagnosis of drug induced psychosis, depression and schizophrenia.

They were an informal patient, meaning that they were not detained under the Mental Health Act and they could request to leave at any time. But, the patient should have been assessed and an Informal Leave Risk Assessments should have been be filled in, a Nursing and Midwifery Council Fitness to Practise Committee heard.

The patient left the ward just before 1pm and was declared missing at 5.10pm. They were subsequently found hours later to have taken an overdose in the city centre.

Chooramun failed to follow the correct process when the patient left and it was not until 4.30pm that he realised they had not yet returned.

He wrote in his statement to the coroner that he called the police at 4pm, which was “not an accurate reflection of what happened,” a report said.

The document from the committee hearing said: “If the police had been notified earlier they would have had more time to locate Patient A.

“It was Mr Chooramun’s responsibility as the nurse in charge to call the police.”

In a report Chooramun said: “I am ashamed to admit that I have made a series of errors which is not becoming of the nurse that I am and have trained to be, or my profession.

“It is not how I would normally carry out my duties and for this I am extremely remorseful.

“Something in my practice went wrong that day.”

He added: “I feel that I have let a lot of people down including my colleagues and, more importantly, the patients that I care for and Patient A. I have not carried out my duties to the extent that I know that I am capable of doing.”

The Nursing and Midwifery Council Fitness to Practise Committee decided to strike Chooramun off.

Woodbourne Priory Hospital was approached for comment.