Nursing staff drugged stroke patients ‘so they could have an easy shift’
Two healthcare workers have been found guilty of mistreating patients by drugging them just to ‘keep them quiet’.
Senior nurse Catherine Hudson, 54, gave unprescribed sedatives to two patients to give herself an ‘easy life’ during shifts at the stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital between April 2017 and November 2018, a court heard.
She was also convicted of conspiring with assistant practitioner Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to sedate a third patient.
Jurors were told Hudson texted a colleague she had sedated one of the patients ‘within an inch of her life’, adding: ‘Bet she’s flat for a week, ha ha.’
Prosecutors said the pair treated patients with ‘contempt’ and considered some of them to be ‘an imposition, an irritation’.
Speaking after the verdict, specialist prosecutor Karen Tonge said they drugged patients ‘for their own convenience and amusement or purely out of spite.’
Alarms were raised after a student nurse on a work placement reported Hudson for suggesting a patient should be given unprescribed Zopiclone.
Zopiclone, a sleeping pill, is potentially life-threatening if inappropriately administered to patients who are acutely unwell, Preston Crown Court heard.
The student heard Hudson say: ‘Well she’s got a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) in place so she wouldn’t be opened up if she died or like if it came to any harm.’
Prosecutors said police discovered a ‘culture of abuse’ on the unit after looking at WhatsApp messages between Hudson and Wilmot.
Referring to one elderly female patient, Hudson wrote: ‘R u actually kidding me?? Surely there’s no-one worse than her!! Which bay?? I’m in pink tonight, no dickheads had better b in there or they r being sedated [laughing emojis]!! Xxx.’
Wilmot replied: ‘Yeah very f****** annoying. Give her the best sleep she ever had pmsl [laughing emojis] xxx.’
Hudson then commented: ‘Permanently [laughing emojis] xxx.’
The patient’s daughter complained three times about the standard of care to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (Pals) but never heard back, the court heard.
Hudson and Wilmot claimed the messages were ‘banter’ and that they used ‘gallows humour’ to vent their frustration at working in an understaffed unit.
Hudson was also convicted of stealing Mebeverine, a drug used to treat irritable bowel syndrome.
She previously admitted to conspiring with other colleagues to steal other drugs, including Zopiclone, as well as perverting the course of justice.
Wilmot also previously admitted to conspiring to steal medication from the hospital.
The pair will be sentenced in December, ahead of which Hudson was remanded in custody while Wilmot will be granted bail.
One of the victims was Aileen Scott, from Glasgow, who suffered a stroke and was paralysed while on holiday in Blackpool.
Her son Brian said the defendants’ actions had a ‘major impact’ on his mother and left her ‘fearful of going into hospital’.
He told Sky News: ‘Hearing how they have spoken about patients who are people and it’s not in jest, it’s absolute pure evil and each and every one of them involved in this will hopefully hang their heads in shame – that they’ll reflect on the impact that they’ve had on vulnerable people who needed their care the most.’
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