Five health workers charged amid investigation into ill-treatment at hospital

FIVE healthcare professionals have been charged with criminal offences following allegations that patients were unlawfully sedated at a hospital.

Lancashire Police said three nurses and two healthcare assistants who worked at Blackpool Victoria Hospital had been charged with offences including ill-treatment, relating to the unlawful sedation of patients, as well as the theft and supply of medication.

A major police investigation was launched after concerns were raised to Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in November 2018.

Yesterday, a force spokesman said Catherine Hudson, 52, of Blackpool, was charged with seven counts of a care worker ill-treating/wilfully neglecting an individual, eight offences of conspiring to steal from an employer, one count of theft by employee and perverting the course of justice.

Charlotte Wilmot, 47, also of Blackpool, was charged with encouraging/assisting in the commission of an offence believing it will be committed, relating to encouraging a nurse to sedate a patient, conspiring to ill-treat a patient and four offences of conspiring to steal from an employer.

Matthew Pover, 39, of Smethwick, West Midlands, was charged with conspiring to steal from employer, theft by employee, supplying a Class C drug and offering to supply a Class C drug.

Victoria Holehouse, 31, of Hambleton, North Yorkshire, was charged with two counts of conspiring to steal from employer, and Marek Grabianowski, 45, of Bispham, Lancashire, was charged with three counts of conspiring to steal from an employer and one count of perverting the course of justice.

The charges relate to the period between August 2014 and November 2018.

All five defendants are due to appear at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court on May 31.

Detective Chief Inspector Jill Johnston said: “Our investigation remains ongoing.”