Two UK psych nurses face loss of license over neglect death of patient

April 27, 2013

Two nurses are facing being struck off after a mental health patient died when he was left lying on a hospital floor for 10 hours.

Peter Thompson, 41, who had drug and alcohol problems, was found lifeless in Manchester’s Edale House.

Manchester coroner Nigel Meadows ruled at his inquest that his death was ‘wholly preventable’.

Mr Thompson was stopped from entering his ward after he refused to surrender a bottle of vodka.

After staff refused to let him in, Mr Thompson fell asleep in the corridor at around 8.10pm, on April 3, 2010.

Nurses and managers were forced to step over him to get into the ward – and he was not pronounced dead until 6.43am the following morning.

Now mental health nurse Olandi Oyebadejo and night shift manager Joseph Crentsil are appearing before a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing in London accused of misconduct. If the fitness to practice hearing goes against them, they could be banned from working as nurses.

Mr Oyebadejo was dismissed by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust in June 2010 and Mr Crentsil was given a final written warning.

He was also moved to a different department.

The pair are accused of failing to make proper checks on Mr Thompson during the night – and the hearing will also investigate claims that they did not provide adequate care to him.

Mr Thompson, an unemployed dad who previously lived on Monica Grove, Levenshulme, had a history of drug and drink problems.

He voluntarily became an in-patient at Edale House in February 2010.

A pathologist report concluded he died from fatal levels of alcohol and anti-psychotic drugs, with liver cirrhosis as a contributing factor.

Staff did not move him or physically try to wake him up, but checked on him several times throughout the night of his death, his inquest was told in June 2011.

The inquest jury returned a verdict of ‘death by misadventure contributed to by neglect’.

Shocking CCTV footage was shown to the jury of Mr Thompson’s body being dragged across the hospital corridor by nurses after they discovered he was dead.

The same footage was shown on the opening day of the fitness to practice hearing.

Edale House, which was on the Central Manchester Hospitals site off Oxford Road, has since closed.

The NMC hearing is expected to continue until April 10.

Source: Alice McKeegan, "Nurses could be struck off over mental health patient left to die on floor," Manchester Evening, April 3, 2013.