Nurse Struck Off After Abuse Case

A male nurse has been struck off after being found guilty of forcing a pensioner with Alzheimer’s to slap his own bare chest while making the sound of Tarzan’s call. Andrew Finlayson, 53, was also found guilty of telling the 70-year-old man, a former professional footballer, to “go and play on the f****** motorway.”

Mr Finlayson yesterday told a Nursing and Midwifery Council disciplinary hearing he had jokingly used the nickname “Tarzan” for the patient, who was suffering from the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. He denied mocking the man, or any other form of mistreatment.

But yesterday the disciplinary panel found Mr Finlayson guilty of mistreating the elderly man, known as Patient A. They also found him guilty of sexually harassing two female nursing assistants, and ordered he be struck off and banned from nursing with immediate effect.

Mr Finlayson, 53, who worked at Roadmeetings Hospital in Carluke, Lanarkshire, had been accused of seven charges of misconduct while employed as a deputy charge nurse.

Staff nurse Marie Doyle told the hearing she was shocked to hear Mr Finlayson shout the motorway remark at the man while in the busy hospital canteen.

The solicitor for the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Rosemary Rollason, said: “Many of the patients, including Patient A, were elderly and suffering from dementia. They were entitled to respect and Mr Finlayson failed them.”