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Care home nurse Manuela Sabou faces misconduct panel after failings at Charing House

A care home nurse's failure to administer medicine correctly was "inherently dangerous", a misconduct panel has found.

Romanian Manuela Sabou will now be subject to strict monitoring for 18 months and must pass an English test.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council began investigating several incidents at Charing House, Gillingham, in June 2017.

Care home stock pic (6868903)
Care home stock pic (6868903)

Senior staff at the Canterbury Street home had reported Ms Sabou following six breaches of duty in four months.

They'd also raised concerns about her grasp of English.

But Ms Sabou claimed she was allowed to administer medication despite not having adequate qualifications.

“I have not been supported within the role during my employment …. Charing House had a duty of care to client which has been breached ...” — Manuela Sabou

The panel heard Ms Sabou was registered as a nurse in the UK in October 2016 and began working at Charing House two months later.

In March 2017 she was supervised for the first time. The shift was incident free.

Six days later she was observed failing to give pain relief to a resident.

On two occasions the following month, while caring for another patient, she incorrectly administered six units of fast-acting insulin, which put them at risk of harm.

Two weeks later she wrongly gave a patient one tablet for severe pain relief and a month later gave another resident two doses of antibiotics.

On June 17 while giving end-of-life care to an elderly man Ms Sabou failed to administer pain relief and then shut his door to block out his moans.

"This caused patient E to suffer pain throughout the night. In addition Ms Sabou closed the door to his room to minimise the noise caused by him crying, which was affecting other residents. The panel find Ms Sabou was aware he was in pain and did not provide analgesia, which it considered to be serious misconduct," the NMC report states.

Ms Sabou made full admissions following the incidents.

In a letter addressed to the panel Ms Sabou wrote: “I feel the underlying reasons for the mistakes was my poor English and I should have asked for more help and wish I had done so.”

She added: “I did not start my medicine competency until January 2017, but was allowed to administer drugs throughout the duration until these were signed off.

“I have not been supported within the role during my employment …. Charing House had a duty of care to client which has been breached ...”.

The panel noted there was some weight in her argument but that the code of practice states it it is the responsibility of a nurse to work within their competency.

Charing House is home to up to 88 elderly patients and was rated 'good' by the care quality commission after an inspection carried out while Ms Sabou was working there.

The home did not wish to comment when approached by the Messenger.

Since the incidents Ms Sabou has been working at Strode Park nursing home, in Herne Bay, subject to strict conditions and has been assessed by senior staff as "competent".

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