Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CARER GETS SLAP BAN
Worker is suspended for two years
A WOMAN has been suspended as a care worker for two years after slapping a vulnerable man.
A probe found Wendy Sue Welsh’s fitness to practise had been “impaired” and ruled she also used “foul language” during the incident on April 22, 2016.
The Northern Ireland Social Care Council was told she received “quite a slap” from service user H.
A witness added Welsh then struck the man’s forearm with an open hand, telling him: “Don’t f***ing hit me. I don’t get paid to get hit by you”. The committee also heard while changing the victim’s pad, she said: “I know it’s not f***ing right, you won’t let me fix it”.
The allegations were referred to the NISCC by Welsh’s former employer Nursing and Caring Direct, based in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
A report stated the worker denied having any “untoward contact” with the man in his home but admitted saying: “Frig sake... I don’t get paid for this.” The inquiry was told that on June 2, 2016, Welsh applied for a job at Rose Lodge Care Homes in Lisburn but failed to declare she had been the subject of an abuse investigation.
The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority also became involved after the worker started a new role while being investigated for the slap.
It held an unannounced inspection at Rose Lodge on July 14, 2016, and identified a number of concerns in relation to employment files but took no enforcement action.
Welsh was suspended from practising as a social care worker for a period of two years.
She was not present or represented at the hearing which also heard of her “previous good history”.
The inquiry heard the slap was an “isolated incident in an otherwise long and unblemished period of working in the social care sphere”.