Abuse claims denied by care-home nurse

Date published: 08 April 2014


AN abusive care-home nurse watched a frail pensioner suffer a fit as she struggled to lift herself off the floor for 15 minutes, a tribunal has been told.

Juliet Monk, nurse in charge of night shifts, is accused of verbally, mentally and physically abusing residents with mental-health problems in the Brookdale unit at St George’s Care Centre in Moorside.

She accused one woman, who collapsed on the floor in an apparent fit, of attention-seeking.

And she instructed a care assistant to “leave her alone — she can get up off her own steam” when she found a fragile woman on the floor in her bedroom, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Monk also forced a quiet man into communal areas against his will, pushed residents around and twisted the ankle of one elderly man, it was alleged.

Care assistant Lynn Fawley worked one night a week with Monk and described witnessing some of her behaviour.

Monk had worked at the centre for nine years and was the nurse in charge of night shifts. Home manager Angela Lewis received a complaint on December 27, 2011, and an investigation was launched.

Monk denies charges concerning four residents at the home, allegedly leaving each one distressed or at risk of harm by her behaviour.

She admits a more general charge that residents were confined to their rooms and were not allowed into the kitchen between midnight and 6am. The nurse also admits leaving only one carer at the home when she left her shift at 12.30am on Christmas Eve and failing to leave the keys of the controlled drug cabinet with a nurse.

If the panel find Monk guilty of the allegations, she could face being struck off the register.

The hearing continues.