Four-month ban for Rotherham nurse

Annita Mace (49), was found guilty of leaving a drug trolley open and unattended, failing to assist a resident with taking medication and leaving tablets unattended while working at Cherry Tree Nursing Home, Kimberworth, between 2004 and 2006.

The finding was made by the Nursing and Midwifery Council following a hearing in London last week when Mace denied all the charges.

The council heard evidence that Mace, of East Herringthorpe, left medication in the dining room and bedrooms of Cherry Tree Nursing Home knowing that a male resident had threatened to take an overdose.

She was accused of increasing the water intake of an elderly man on a feeding tube which could have resulted in hyponatremia—decreased levels of sodium in the blood—and in extreme cases, swelling of the brain.

Mace popped a pressure sore on a resident’s back using her fingernails and told a colleague to apply a morphine patch to another resident when he was not qualified to do so.

The nurse was also found guilty of leaving drugs lying around the Longley Park View Nursing Home, in Sheffield, in December 2006.

Chairman of the Conduct and Competence panel, Franklyn Baker, said that references prepared on Mace’s behalf since the matters four years ago showed that Mace had overcome her deficiencies in administering medication and feeding.

But the incident in which she pierced a pressure sore on a resident's back using her finger meant she was still impaired to practice.

Mr Baker said: “If inadvertent, the registrant should have immediately acknowledged her mistake and acted accordingly.

“If deliberate, it amounted to an assault on a vulnerable patient.”

He announced that the nurse would be suspended for four months “to mark the seriousness of her departure from proper standards.”

He added: “The incident concerning the pressure sore clearly caused the patient harm.

“The panel accepts it was an isolated incident but it cannot say it was not deliberate.

“We consider that a period of suspension would be sufficient to mark the seriousness of her departure from proper standards and would uphold public confidence. "

The panel has taken into account that any period of suspension is likely to have very serious financial consequences for the registrant.

“It has decided that a period of four months suspension is necessary and proportionate in this case.”

The suspension order will begin in around 28 days.

Before returning to work, Mace must provide further references and proof that she has maintained her professional knowledge.