Scottish care home manager suspended after being labelled a potential ‘risk and danger to the public

THE manager of a Scottish care home, accused of causing the premature death of an elderly patient, has been suspended from the nursing profession after being labelled a potential “risk and danger to the public.”

• Pamela Tavendale has been banned from working as a nurse for 18 months while the National Midwifery Council carries out detailed investigation

• Ms Tavendale failed to appear at a disciplinary hearing last month

Pamela Tavendale has been banned from working as a nurse for 18 months while the National Midwifery Council carries out a detailed investigation into the allegations made against her.

Ms Tavendale, who has now been sacked by her employers, was manager of the Mowat Care Home in Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire which was condemned in a scathing report published last August by the Care Inspectorate.

The family of one of the residents, Gladys Burr, 89, have accused the care home, run by Colchester-based Care UK, of causing the premature death of Mrs Burr after she had been allegedly illegally restrained and needlessly drugged. Mrs Burr, from Inverurie, had suffered 54 accidents in the four months she stayed at Mowat Court before she died in February last year.

Ms Tavendale had been called to appear before a disciplinary hearing of the nursing watchdog in Edinburgh last month but did not attend and was not legally represented at the hearing.

And in a new ruling, issued following the hearing, the NMC panel has ordered that Ms Tavendale should be suspended from the profession for 18 months.

The panel states: “The panel is of the view that, based on the allegations before it, Miss Tavendale may present a risk and danger to public. The panel therefore concluded that some form of interim order is necessary on the grounds of public protection and that an order is otherwise in the public interest, in order to maintain confidence in the professions and the NMC as regulator.

“The panel considered this case carefully and decided to make an interim suspension order. The period of this order is for 18 months to allow the NMC to conduct a full and proper investigation.”

The ruling states: “Miss Tavendale was employed by Care UK as a deputy manager and then later as home manager at the Mowat Care Home. A complaint was made by the family of a resident who were concerned with the care that resident was receiving. A meeting between Miss Tavendale and the family took place on 16 January 2012. It is alleged that this meeting was not recorded and that the concerns raised by the family were not actioned by Ms Tavendale.

“Further to this, the Care Inspectorate report identified the high level of falls and the potential link to the administration of antipsychotic and sedative medications. It is alleged that there had been no adequate risk assessment.”

Residents ‘put at risk’

At the hearing Mary-Teresa Deignan, representing the NMC’s Regulatory Legal Team, submitted that the “very vulnerable” residents of the care home had been put at risk by the actions of Ms Tavendale and that an interim suspension order was necessary in the public interest and also for the protection of the public.

The ruling continues that an interim conditions of practice order had been ruled out as such an order “would be insufficient to protect the public” and to meet the wider public interest considerations of the case.

It states: “ The panel was not satisfied that conditions of practice could be devised which would be sufficient to protect the public given the seriousness of the allegations. Furthermore, the panel noted that

Miss Tavendale was dismissed from her employment and that she is currently unemployed.

“The panel has noted that this order will prevent Miss Tavendale from working as a registered nurse. However, based on the evidence she has provided, it appears Miss Tavendale is not currently working, nor does she intend to work as a registered nurse and therefore it was not necessary to consider the issue of financial hardship in her case. Irrespective of this the panel determined that the need to protect the public and

the wider public interest outweighed Miss Tavendale’s interests in this regard.”

The ruling adds: “Unless Miss Tavendale’s case has already been concluded or there has been a material change of circumstances, the panel will review the interim suspension order at a review meeting within the next six months and every three months after that.”

The watchdog’s Conduct and Competence Committee has still to deal with the allegations made against the former care home manager.

‘Illegally restrained’

A spokeswoman for CareUK said: “We conducted our own internal investigation and, as a result, we suspended the manager and reported her conduct to the NMC.”

Mrs Burr’s son, Sandy, said: “Whilst we acknowledge that the NMC have taken action in regard to the manager at the time, other individuals involved in our mother’s care at Mowat Court are equally accountable and should be dealt with similarly.”

The report by the Care Inspectorate, published last August, found that residents were “illegally restrained” by nursing staff at Mowat Court. The inspectors stated: “There is overwhelming evidence that service users have been inappropriately and illegally restrained.”

They also said there had been a failure to ensure prescribed medication was “efficiently administered”, a failure to protect from falls, and a failure to treat residents with “dignity and respect.”

The report stated: “We observed care practices and examined records which evidenced very poor care practices in relation to restraint and the administration of medication. All of these activities are examples of care staff treating service users in an undignified and disrespectful manner.

“There is sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation made by the complaint that care staff were not treating service users in a dignified and respectful manner.”

Lewis Macdonald, the North East Labour MSP, welcomed the NMC investigation.

He said: “It is reassuring to know that the authorities are taking these matters seriously and that the nurse in charge when Gladys Burr died at Mowat Court will have her conduct scrutinised by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

“However, the number of cases raised suggests that the conditions at Mowat Court did not develop through failures by a single member of staff. There may well have been systemic failures at the home, and I would urge the NMC to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the whole way in which care for elderly people has been mismanaged at Mowat Court.”