Ex-chief nurse at Mid Staffordshire NHS trust was suspended in 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/07/chief-nurse-mid-staffordshire-nhs-trust-suspended

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The ex-chief nurse at Mid Staffordshire NHS trust has been suspended from practicing for more than two years over claims she put patients at risk as a result of "serious misconduct", it has emerged.

Janice Harry has been banned from working as a nurse anywhere in the UK since the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the profession's regulator, imposed an interim suspension order on her in October 2010.

NMC documentation states that the allegations leading to her suspension "relate to Mrs Harry being in a senior position with responsibilities for the delivery of patient care and failures in her duty of care to maintain a safe level of practice surrounding poor infection control and prevention, the lack of governance regarding patient safety and risk management."

On Wednesday, David Cameron apologised on behalf of the government and the country for the failures at Mid Staffs which had allowed "horrific abuse to go unchecked and unchallenged" for so long. Between 400 and 1,200 patients died as a result of appalling care provided there between 2005 and 2009. A report by Robert Francis QC, who chaired the 31-month public inquiry into the scandal, made 290 recommendations to improve standards of care.

The NMC claims that Harry is the subject of "a substantive number of serious and wide-ranging allegations" and "serious misconduct allegations that occurred over a significant period of time. The allegations are wide-ranging and numerous".

Its disciplinary panel last October confirmed that her suspension should remain in force pending a full hearing and reaffirmed its view that "given the serious nature of the allegations, an interim order is otherwise in the public interest in order to maintain public trust and confidence in the profession and the regulatory process, and to declare and uphold proper standards of conduct."

Harry did not attend the NMC's interim order review hearing that led to that decision, did not ask for it to be adjourned and was not legally represented, although Thompsons solicitors have been acting for her over the NMC's disciplinary action against her. NMC documentation for that hearing makes clear that "Mrs Harry maintains that the current suspension is not warranted for the reasons put forward on her behalf by the [NMC's] investigating committee at the meeting on 25 October 2010 [when she was first suspended]."

Harry held the posts of chief nurse, director of clinical standards and director of nursing and quality at the trust while she worked there from 1996 until June 2006. She is no longer employed by them, the trust said.

The NMC and its equivalent for doctors, the General Medical Council, are under pressure from David Cameron to overhaul their procedures and bring more nurses and doctors to book after it emerged that no member of either profession who has worked at Stafford hospital has been struck off.

Although 41 nurses have been referred to the NMC since the first of two reports into the hospital by Robert Francis QC in early 2010, none has so far been disciplined in any way. Of those, action against 31 was considered but discontinued due to what the regulator said was a lack of evidence.

It has begun disciplinary proceedings against Reni Biju, a nurse who is accused of misconduct involving four patients in separate incidents during 2009-10, long after the first concerns emerged about the hospital. She is accused of walking away from a female patient who asked her to pass her a hearing aid and then, when the same patient pressed her call bell because she needed help to visit the toilet, cancelling the call bell and walking away and, soon after, giving the patient her walking frame and letting her go to the toilet unaided. Biju "showed no interest in Patient D's safety and wellbeing", the NMC claims

It will also next week begin a fitness to practice hearing into claims that Bonka Kostova, a midwife working as a healthcare support worker, gave inadequate care to a patient who had Alzheimer's disease. The NMC claims that she "pushed Patient A back into his chair when he stood up; used your body weight to push Patient A into the bathroom [and] onto the toilet; pulled Patient A out of the bathroom in a state of undress; raised your voice and/or shouted at Patient A 1) 'I hate you' or words to that effect [and] 2) 'You are no longer a human being but an animal', or words to that effect."

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "The NMC and the GMC have a duty to act where poor practice and a lack of care, compassion or dignity from healthcare professionals is identified. Tragically this did not happen for those treated so appalling at Stafford Hospital."