HORTON: COLLEAGUE LEFT ‘APPALLED’ BY NURSE’S RACIST COMMENTS

A racist nurse asked a heathcare assistant if she had been touching a black colleague when she stained her hands with ink, a tribunal heard today (tues).

Zoe Adams claims she was ‘too scared’ of being bullied to report two mental health nurses who allegedly abused patients and staff at St Mary’s Hospital, in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

She said she saw Sarah Horton hit a bipolar man in his 70s, identified only as Patient B, so hard in the back it made an ‘audible thud.’

She claimed Horton then stood on Patient B’s foot in a struggle to get him to the bathroom and when he sat down on the floor, she pulled him up roughly by the wrist.

Horton and Cullum made monkey noises while discussing a black doctor during a shocking campaign of racist abuse, it is claimed.

They allegedly referred to the medic as ‘scary Mary’ and said she ‘shouldn’t be allowed to breed.’

Giving evidence at the Nursing and Midwifery Council today Mrs Adams said the incident involving patient B in June 2007 wasn’t the first time she had seen Horton behave inappropriately.

In 2006, Mrs Adams was shocked by the nurse’s racist outburst when she walked into a staff room with her hands covered in photocopier ink.

She said: ‘Mrs Horton saw my hands and said words to the effect of “have you touched Kofo?” She was a black nurse who had worked on the ward.

‘I was appalled. I did not reply as I was too shocked.’

When asked why she had not reported the incident, Mrs Adams said she was too scared of being bullied by Horton.

She said: ‘How could you so anything about it when you were scared of being bullied yourself?’

The panel has head how Horton referred to black colleagues as ‘n****rs’ while her patients were branded ‘parasites’ and ‘beasts’, the panel has heard.

Cullum described the hospital’s Carlton dementia ward as ‘The United Nations’ and allegedly said: ‘There is not a single white face, they’re all black.’

The hearing was told how a man in his 70s with bipolar disorder, named only as Patient B, was allegedly hit and kicked by Horton after refusing to get into a bath.

On another occasion, both nurses were allegedly seen manhandling Patient B and telling him he smelled of urine.

They made jibes about the man’s sexuality, repeatedly asking if he was gay and suggesting he preferred the company of men, it was said.

The majority of the 77 charges faced by the two nurses relate to allegations of racism, much of it towards a black doctor identified as Ms M.

Horton faces 44 separate misconduct charges including claims she refused to accept a student she thought might be black.

She denied all but one of the charges, admitting only that she had once said words to the effect of ‘excuse me skinny’ to a staff member.

Cullum faces 30 separate charges, many of which overlap with those faced by Horton.

She is also accused of leaving a patient, who was unable to get up, lying on the floor for two hours.

Cullum denies most of the charges but accepts she refused to help a patient with her medication, spoke rudely to another patient and referred to Carlton Ward as the United Nations.

If the nurses are found guilty and their fitness to practise is ruled to be impaired, they could face being struck off.

The hearing continues.
ends