Fined, NHS bosses whose lost dementia patient died in canal
A HEALTH board was fined £8,000 yesterday for failing to ensure the health and safety of a dementia patient who escaped from a hospital ward and was found dead in a canal a week later.
Alexander ‘Sandy’ Gerrard absconded from the former Bonnybridge hospital, near Falkirk, in May 2011.
Mr Gerrard, 69, originally from turriff Aberdeenshire, was described by police as ‘very vulnerable’.
he was spotted a few hours after his disappearance more than seven miles away on the outskirts of Kilsyth, Stirlingshire.
Police launched a major search involving specialist dogs, police search experts, fire and rescue service thermal imaging equipment and a police helicopter, with posters featuring his photograph also released.
But a week later his body was found by members of the public in the Forth and Clyde Canal at Auchinstarry.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard Mr Gerrard, of longcroft, near Falkirk, had made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to abscond from the hospital six days earlier, but NHS ~officials had failed to carry out ‘a suitable and sufficient assessment’ of the risk of him doing so again. he was reported missing from the unit around 9pm on May 10, 2011, having been last seen on Ward 2 of the hospital between 3pm and 5pm that day.
Stirling-based NHS Forth Valley pleaded guilty to failing to assess the risks to Mr Gerrard’s health and safety, contrary to 1999 Management of health and Safety at Work Regulations and Sheriff Derek livingston fined it £8,000.
the health board closed Bonnybridge hospital just seven month later, with its staff and patients transferred to Falkirk Community hospital. the site was later sold for housing.
Mr Gerrard, a retired plant operator, initially moved to the Denny area of Stirlingshire in the late 1960s to find work.
Speaking in 2011 after Mr Gerrard’s body was found, close friend Bert Gordon, of Denny, said: ‘I was shocked to learn of his disappearance. he was a very active man and would walk from longcroft to Denny daily to visit the shops.’
A spokesman for NHS Forth Valley said: ‘We are very sorry for the circumstances surrounding this patient’s death and again apologise to the family for the distress this has caused.
‘A number of actions have been carried out to address the shortcomings identified as a result of our internal investigation and the investigation carried out by the health and Safety executive.’