Dementia Nurse On Conduct Charges

A dementia sufferer was dragged and pushed into a chair by a laughing nurse, a hearing heard.

Margaret Hamilton, 47, has admitted six charges of addressing and handling patients inappropriately at Wakefield House care home, Cullen, between 2004 and 2005.

Despite admitting the charges at a hearing, the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s conduct and competence committee refused her plea and insisted it was up to the panel to prove the case.

It is claimed the nurse also told an anorexia sufferer she could not leave the dinner table until she finished her meal and that she made inappropriate comments to, or in the presence of, a patient.

It is also claimed she spoke in an abusive manner to a pensioner with learning difficulties.

Mrs Hamilton’s colleagues gave evidence at the hearing at the Manesfield Hotel in Elgin.

Wakefield House matron manager Lorraine Bassett said she had always perceived Mrs Hamilton to be “abrupt” but had no issue with her conduct until she received a complaint from the daughter of a patient.

Mrs Hamilton was suspended and an investigation was launched.

Care assistant Lorraine Jess said that she had concerns with the way Mrs Hamilton treated two patients adding she was, “quite nasty” to one of them, and would “scream” at another “in an aggressive way.”

A statement from a grandson of a patient claimed he witnessed Mrs Hamilton pulling a patient in an aggressive manner.

The statement said: ” She was yanking her in quite an aggressive way.” The hearing continues today.