MDUBEKI: NURSE USED COAT HANGER ON PATIENT

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Nursing and Midwifery Council/Sonia Elks
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10 November 2011

hanger…1

A nurse treated an incontinent patient with a piece of plastic coat hanger because she was ‘in a hurry’ to finish her shift, a hearing was told today.

Nolulamo Joyce Mdubeki used the broken plastic shard to perform the intimate procedure on the Huntingdon’s disease sufferer, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

When Mdubeki was arrested following the incident at the Richmond Hall Care Home in Stonnall Road, Aldridge, Walsall, she told officers: ‘I was in a rush to finish, that’s why I did it.’

Mdubeki worked as a bank nurse at the residential home, which cares for elderly residents, including the 55-year-old man, who was identified only as patient A.

Care assistant Tracy Richards told the hearing she was left ‘shocked and deeply upset’ after the incident on 19 September 2009.

Ms Richards said the patient suffered from both Huntingdon’s disease and had problems with constipation.

On the day in question, she said she was asked to sit with the man and offer comfort while Mdubeki, who she knew as ‘Joyce’, carried out an examination.

‘Whilst comforting patient A, I saw Joyce place a black stick-like object on the bed,’ said Ms Richards.

‘I didn’t recognise the object, but I assumed it was something nurses use so I didn’t think anything of it.’

‘Patient A continued to be very upset during this treatment, though he did not seem to be in pain,’ she said.

It was only when Mdubeki laid the object on the bed afterwards that she saw it was a plastic coat hanger fragment.

When she quizzed the nurse about the object, she confirmed it was a coat hanger, before leaving the room.

‘I was shocked by this and felt deeply upset’, she said.

Ms Richards reported the incident to her bosses and Mdubeki was suspended.

Mdubeki was then arrested three days later.

Cassandra Scarbrough, for the NMC, said: ‘In response to the caution, it is stated that the registrant replied: “I was in a rush to finish, that’s why I did it.”

‘However, in interview under caution, she denied making that comment.’

During the interview she then admitted that she did break off a piece of coat hanger and insert it into the patient’s backside to clean him.

Mdubeki, who is not attending the central London tribunal, denies that her fitness to practise is impaired by reason of misconduct.

The hearing continues.
ends