Care Nurse ‘Got Dementia Patients Up At 5.30am’

A nurse was reported to watchdogs after she ordered dementia patients out of their beds at 5.30am.

The Care Commission upheld a complaint that up to 18 elderly residents were taken out of their beds and left to sit in a lounge until breakfast.

Some residents had to wait more than two hours before they could be fed when the kitchen staff arrived for work at 8am.

Joyce Lynn, a district nurse, works part-time at Greenhills Care Home in Biggar, Lanarkshire, where the abuse allegedly took place.

And she works as a nurse attached to Lady Home Hospital in Douglas, also Lanarkshire.

The Care Commission also investigated a complaint that Lynn used manual evacuation on dementia residents who were constipated.

The method should only be used as a last resort as it can be very painful.

They passed their concerns to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, who are now conducting their own investigation. There were allegations that Lynn had used the procedure on a 97-year-old woman who was crying as it was carried out.

Watchdogs who examined the claims of early starts for patients were told that some of them were taken out of bed and left to doze in their wheelchairs in the residents’ lounge.

One source said: “Some of them just wanted to go back to bed but they were just left in the lounge to sleep there. Sometimes they didn’t even get a cup of tea until breakfast.

“Some were put in baths at that time in the morning. It was ridiculous.”

Lynn was a staff nurse on night shift and sources claim that she maintained there was not enough time for the day shift to get everyone up in time for breakfast.

The source said: “If we protested, we were told to just get on with it.”

The Care Commission gave the home 24 hours to stop disturbing patients at such an early hour.

They ruled: “The practice of disturbing residents at early hours of the morning will cease.

“Service users’ waking and rising times will be recognised and respected at all times.”

Greenhill is owned by Thistle Healthcare, who boast on their website that residents will be given freedom to do as they wish, with “compassionate nursing care tailored to the individual”.

Last night, owner Dev Fowdar claimed the Care Commission had been wrong in upholding the complaint.

He said: “The patients were up through their own choice. There were not that many up at 5.30am.

The practice has ceased and they can get up whenever they want.”

A spokesman for the Care Commission said: “We upheld aspects of a complaint against this home in relation to waking and dressing residents from as early as 5.30am and in relation to staffing levels.

“We were also asked to investigate a complaint in relation to alleged inappropriate practice conducted by a member of staff.

“Following investigation, this complaint has been passed to the Nursing and Midwifery Council.”