MEAL: NURSE WHO ‘MANHANDLED’ ELDERLY PATIENT IS STRUCK OFF

A nurse who left a 100-year-old patient spilling blood after ‘roughly manhandling’ her onto a commode has been kicked out of the profession.

Andrea Meal lost her temper with the woman after she asked to use the toilet during a nights shift at Woking Community Hospital in Surrey.

The patient was left with an 8cm wound to her leg, which was dressed with a treatment normally used for ulcers, causing further bleeding 
when it was removed.

Meal then used only a paper towel to clean the spilt blood from the floor of Victoria Ward.

A string of charges relating to the care of the woman, referred to only as Patient D, were found proved by a Nursing and Midwifery  Council panel.

They also found Meal guilty of leaving two patients to sleep on the floor during a night shift.

But she was cleared of allegations she had failed to drain and wrap a dead body, leaving bodily fluids to drip out onto the bed and the floor.

Ordering her name be struck off the nursing register, panel chair Paul Pharaoh said: ‘The nature and seriousness of the misconduct and impairment found are such that we consider her behaviour 
fundamentally incompatible with continuing as a nurse.

‘There have been serious departures from the code of practice and there is a continuing need to protect patients and the public.

‘These were two separate incidents of misconduct and the registrant has shown limited insight into her failings.

‘We consider striking off the only appropriate and proportionate response.’

Meal was coming to the end of a night shift on June 20, 2008, when Patient D asked to use the toilet, the panel was told.

‘This patient was, at this point, aged 100, though she was competent and in possession of all her faculties,’ said Ian Brown, for the NMC.

‘Yet this registrant was rushed at the end of her shift and decided not to assist Patient D. Instead, she brought a commode.

‘Patient D didn’t like using a commode and wanted to use the toilet.

‘What makes this so serious is that in getting Patient D onto the commode, Patient D’s legs were injured.

‘She was handled in such a way that there was a laceration on her calf, which meant there was blood spilling onto the floor.’

‘One could not think how this incident could get much worse, but the NMC will say that it did.

‘She did not carry out a wound assessment like she should have done and she did not use the appropriate dressing.

‘The dressing she used actually caused more injury when removed. It was wholly unsuitable.’

He added: ‘Finally, just to round off this terrible incident, there was blood all over the floor from the patient’s legs.

‘You would expect a registered nurse to follow hospital policy, be aware of the risk of infection and use an appropriate disinfectant.

‘But she didn’t do this. The NMC will say she wiped the blood up with a paper towel and that was that.’

Patient D did not make a formal statement about the incident, but is said to have told another staff member: ‘She was roughly manhandling  me, knocking both my legs against a metal object.’

In a written statement, matron Susan Smith added: ‘She spoke about the incident and said that Andrea Meal was in a temper with her.’

‘She dragged her across the bed and banged her against the commode.’

Meal also left two elderly patients to sleep on the floor during a night shift on December 11, 2001, putting them at risk of hypothermia

‘Both of these patients were quite shaken up,’ said Mr Brown.

‘One of them found it difficult to walk the next day.

‘The other had red marks on his shoulder and his clothes and sheets were wet because he was incontinent.’

Meal was dismissed from her post with Surrey Primary Care Trust following an investigation into the allegations surrounding Patient D.

She has not worked as a nurse since and did not attend the two-day misconduct hearing in central London.

She admitted causing injuries to Patient D, failing to carry out an adequate wound assessment or use the correct dressing, failing to  document the injuries and failing to clean up the blood spillage with  an appropriate disinfectant.

But she denied failing to follow Patient D’s care plan, failing to drain and wrap the body of Patient C and failing to prevent two other  patients from sleeping on the floor.

ends