Misconduct case care home bosses’s actions ‘a lapse’

AN Oldham care home manager who made a 99-year-old man shout out in pain when he performed an inappropriate rectal examination has been deemed fit to practise.

Charles Jones (57), failed to use lubricant before carrying out the invasive procedure on the Alzheimer’s patient at the Anbridge Care Home, in Herbert Street, Watersheddings, in November, 2006.

Assistant practitioner Treanna Manning witnessed the incident when she visited the home. She told the Nursing and Midwifery Council: “The resident shot up the bed. I didn’t believe what I was seeing.”

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

Quizzed about the incident in January, 2007, Mr Jones admitted carrying out the procedure but claimed he had informed the resident of what he would be doing and that the resident had nodded and smiled, which he took to be consent.

Mr Jones told his disciplinary hearing Mrs Manning might not have heard this as he spoke quietly to avoid causing embarrassment.

NMC chair John Watson said the panel favoured Mr Jones’s account of what happened over that of Mrs Manning.

He said: “Although Mrs Manning clearly did not hear or see this exchange between Mr Jones and the resident, and was disturbed by what she saw subsequently, we think it is likely that he was keeping his voice down in order to minimise possible embarrassment to the resident.”

The panel ruled Mr Jones’s actions amounted to misconduct, but decided he was still fit to practise as a nurse.

Mr Watson continued: “His conduct in our judgement fell below the standards ordinarily required to be followed by a practitioner in the particular circumstances. It was accordingly misconduct.

“We then considered whether his fitness to practise is impaired by reason of that misconduct. We concluded that it is not. This was an isolated lapse. He impressed us with his sincerity and his obvious concern for the patient’s best interests.

Mr Jones, of Mirfield, qualified as a nurse in 1978 and is now a co-owner of the Anbridge Care Home in Oldham.

He represented himself at the central London hearing and denied carrying out an inappropriate digital rectal examination on Resident A and that his fitness to practise was impaired.

Mr Jones, who was cleared by the NMC of failing to get the elderly man’s consent, can now continue in his career.