A clinical nurse manager failed to call an ambulance for a patient who had swallowed cleaning fluid at a Dublin hospital, a Nursing and Midwifery Board Fitness to Practise Inquiry has been told.
The inquiry also heard clinical nurse manager Ann Marie Ryan instructed junior staff not to call an ambulance and not to write up an incident report.
The patient, who swallowed the cleaning fluid while in the care of the psychiatric hospital in March 2021, died some days later after being transferred to an acute hospital in Dublin.
Following the patient’s death the hospital’s acting director of nursing made a complaint about Ms Ryan’s alleged behaviour to the Nursing and Midwifery Board, which is the statutory body overseeing the conduct of nurses.
Ancient remains discovered in Co Derry bog ‘likely to belong to young woman’ who died violently
Garda fitness requirements relaxed as force struggles to increase numbers
Miriam Lord: They seek him here. They seek him there. The Wexford Pimpernel James Browne
House prices could increase due to relaxation of garden-room planning rules, say experts
The Board’s Fitness to Practise Committee opened its inquiry on Monday at which it was ordered neither the patient’s name, nor that of the hospital nor Ms Ryan’s contact details may be disclosed by the media.
At the opening of the inquiry John O’Regan BL for the Nursing and Midwifery Board said the complaints were that Ms Ryan had demonstrated poor professional performance and failure to comply with the Nursing Board’s code of practice.
Nurse Sophie Wilkins said she was on duty at the hospital on March 1st, 2021, when a patient approached her indicating another patient was “after drinking it”. Ms Wilkins immediately approached the patient in question who was sitting at a table with a glass and a cleaning fluid bottle. It was about 8.10pm she said.
Nurse Wilkins said she concluded the patient had drunk the fluid and she contacted the most senior member of staff on duty who was the clinical nurse manager Ms Ryan. “I was quite panicked. I informed Ms Ryan and said I was calling the ambulance,” she said.
However, she said she was told not to call the ambulance and when she suggested writing up an incident report she was told not to do that either. Instead, Ms Ryan had told her to “push fluids” to the patient and “go home” as her shift was ending, she said.
Ms Wilkins said she was very concerned by the patient’s vital signs and contacted the cleaning services manager to ascertain what fluid had been in the bottle which bore a hazardous warning sign.
“I again reiterated we should call an ambulance,” she told the inquiry.
“I was quite panicked, and I was fobbed off,” Ms Watkins said. Ms Watkins said that Ms Ryan did not see the patient personally.
A second nurse, Dumsile Bhende, said she too had wanted to call an ambulance but had been told by Ms Ryan to monitor the patient and give her fluids. Ms Bhende said she suggested calling a GP who arrived and immediately instructed an ambulance be called.
The ambulance arrived after 10pm and the patient was transferred to an acute hospital where she died some days later.
Mr O’Regan confirmed contact between the Nursing Board and Ms Ryan but said she had indicated she was not available for the hearing.
Ms Ryan did not have any representation and said she did not object to the hearing proceeding, he said. He read from an email from Ms Ryan in which she denied the complaints and said she had “100 per cent excellence” in clinical governance and clinical practice.
She accused her superiors at the hospital of “lack of leadership, lack of communication, lack of support, lack of therapeutic mannerism and lack of engagement [which] also impacted on me and my characteristics”.
The Fitness to Practise Committee said it would issue its findings in due course.
