Essex nurse struck off after giving placebo to brain tumour patient

A nurse who gave sugar and water to a brain tumour patient instead of morphine has been struck off.

 

A misconduct hearing was told that Vijayan Rajoo, a nurse at St Fillians care home in Colchester, felt the patient did not need the pain relief.

 

A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel said the nurse’s actions showed a “serious lack of compassion”.

 

It was alleged Mr Rajoo had on one or more occasions given the patient sugar and water instead of oral morphine between November 2018 and June 2019 and failed to make of note of doing so.

 

As well as providing the placebo to a patient, he was alleged to have failed to have checked the controlled drug cupboard contents on one or more occasions in June 2019, despite signing to say he had.

 

The NMC panel said withholding pain relief from a vulnerable patient with a learning disability “demonstrated a lack of compassion and understanding”.

 

A spokesperson from Excelcare, which runs the home, said they were proud of other team members at the care home who picked up on and reported the actions of Mr Rajoo, which resulted in an internal investigation and subsequent NMC misconduct hearing.

 

“Compassion, professionalism and truth are keystones of our approach to all care, our investigation found these to be lacking in this case.”

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

 

Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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