Central News, Press Room, Central Criminal Court,
Central News, Press Room, Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, LONDON, EC4.
Tel: 020 7236 0116.
Nurses Conduct Committee/ps
eMail: news@centralnews.
co.
uk
http://www.
centralnews.
co.
uk
05 November 2001
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The committee later found Dutfield guilty of misconduct on six of the seven charges.
They did not find misconduct relating to the injection given to patient B or on specific allegations about comments about Mrs Winter-Nolan’s children.
Comments about Mrs Purland’s figure were also found not to be misconduct due to their ‘unclear’ nature.
The committee heard how Dutfield qualified as a nurse in 1975 and started work as a staff nurse at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Southampton in 1977.
From 1980 he worked as a nurse with the Army, first in Cyprus as a practice manager with the UN and then as a charge nurse in the burns unit at Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital in Maidstone until 1989.
He worked for the Ministry of Defence until 1990 and then worked for a private unit in Aldershot and at HM Prison Service in Maidstone until 1994.
Dutfield then worked at the Honeyfield and The Oaks Residential Nursing Homes in Dartford from 1995 to 1996.
He joined the Dartford Hospital in January 1997 and was transferred to ward 18B in November 1998 because of an investigation into his conduct.
Dutfield was suspended over his sexual remarks in ward 18B on February 15, 1999, and was sacked by the Trust in June 1999.
Earlier nursing assistant Lisa Purland denied flirting with Dutfield and told how he would ‘twist the conversation’ whenever possible.
She rejected suggestions made in the male nurse’s letter of mitigation that she had asked him out.
Mrs Purland, who still works in Ash Ward, Littlebrook (formerly ward 18B), said: ‘I found him rather bold, very forward, and very sexual in his comments.
‘I told him that I didn’t like it and I would rather he left me alone.
I didn’t like what he was saying.
‘He would just laugh or sneer.
I thought I would be able to sort it out myself to start off with but it just carried on.
‘
She only made her complaints after colleague Mary Winter-Nolan took the matter to bosses at the hospital.
Mrs Purland admitted Dutfield had made a tape of her favourite Corrs song for her ‘on his own initiative’ and laughed when asked if she was attracted to him.
She denied he helped her work out her horoscope on the internet or that she had ever gone out socially with him.
Asked why he only acted this way to nursing auxiliaries, she replied: ‘Maybe he had more respect for the qualified members of staff, I don’t know.
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