Care home boss ‘made man shout out in pain’

AN Oldham care home manager made a 99-year-old man shout out in pain when he performed an “inappropriate” rectal examination on him.

Charles Jones (57) is alleged to have failed to get the Alzheimer’s patient’s consent before carrying out the invasive procedure at the Anbridge Care Home, Herbert Street, Watersheddings, in November, 2006, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard yesterday.

As a co-owner of the home Jones was not working in a clinical role so should not have been performing nursing duties at all, it was said.

Assistant practitioner Treanna Manning told the hearing: “I had been asked to go to the home to visit a few patients.

“The deputy manager asked me to look at resident A even though he wasn’t on my list as she was concerned about a sore he had on his buttocks.

”I had a look at him and he was really red. I stepped out of the room to ask my superiors for advice.”

Mrs Manning said when she returned Jones was in the room.

“I was at the sink washing my hands ready to put a new dressing on the resident,” she said.

Hear

“I recall Mr Jones putting a glove on and running his hand under the tap. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

“I didn’t hear any discussion between him and the resident. Then I just heard resident A shout out in pain.

“It wasn’t until I looked up in the mirror that I saw Mr Jones was carrying out a rectal examination on resident A.

“The resident shot up the bed. I didn’t believe what I was seeing.’

Miss Manning said when she asked Jones what he was doing he allegedly replied: “What have I done? I haven’t done anything wrong?’

After the incident the traumatised resident is said to have curled up in a ball in his bed and squeezed his eyes shut.

Miss Manning later reported what she had seen to her superiors.

Quizzed about the incident in January, 2007, Jones said he thought resident A was constipated and that he did not think the nurse was aware of this.

He admitted not carrying out an abdominal examination beforehand but claimed he had informed resident A of what he would be doing and that resident A had nodded and smiled, which he took to be consent.

Shelley Brownlee, for the NMC, said: ‘It is the council’s case that Mr Jones did not prepare resident A for the procedure or examine him in any way and he should not have been carrying out a digital rectal examination in the first place.

‘In doing this he failed to follow the guidelines of best practice and most seriously of all he failed to obtain consent from an elderly, frail and vulnerable resident who has since passed away.’

Jones, of Mirfield, West Yorkshire, qualified as a nurse in 1978. He is representing himself.

He denies carrying out an inappropriate digital rectal examination on Resident A and that his fitness to practice is impaired.

If found guilty by the NMC, he could be struck off the register.

The hearing continues.