A north care home manager dragged an elderly resident to her bed after a fall and withheld pain relief from another patient, a disciplinary hearing heard.
Witnesses also claimed that John Charters refused to allow an elderly man to go to bed and described another patient as “a pain in the backside”.
Mr Charters, from Nairn, faces 14 charges before the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in Edinburgh, all of which he denies.
The hearing was previously told that Mr Charters said a resident was “here to die anyway” and slapped another resident on the bottom, telling her: “I’ll be your Samson if you’ll be my Delilah.”
The charges relate to the time between November 2013 and July 2014, when he was the Deputy Manager of Grandview House Care Home in Grantown-on-Spey.
The hearing started in February this year but was adjourned following an inaccurate media report that Mr Charters had been struck off.
This week, care assistant Louise Alexander described an incident in which Mr Charters breached lifting guidelines to move a “very frail” resident back to her bed in a despite her health “deteriorating” recently.
She said: “The resident had fallen on the floor of her bedroom and Mr Charters put his arms under her armpits and dragged her back to bed and swung her legs round so she was lying on the bed all in one movement.”
Under cross examination from Mr Charters’ representative, Liam Ewing, Ms Alexander conceded that it may have been more of a “pull” than a “drag” but she felt the action breached care guidelines.
She said: “This is an illegal lift and it could have caused dislocation as the resident was very small and had already declined in health, and his grip appeared quite tight.”
She also claimed that Mr Charters refused to see a resident who was in need of medication. “He’d say he’s a pain in the backside and refused to go in.”
On another occasion, according to Ms Alexander, Mr Charters failed to help a resident who was “rubbing his leg in pain”.
Ms Alexander also alleged that Mr Charters was “really rude” to staff and many were “intimidated” by him”
But Mr Ewing told the hearing that the claims made against his client were “simply not true”.
He suggested that Ms Alexander had “left out” certain aspects of the truth and therefore her comments against Mr Charters were “unfair”.
Later yesterday, Leanne Gilfillan claimed that Mr Charters left an elderly resident “crying in frustration” after refusing his pleas to be put to bed.
After an hour of him begging to be put to bed, fellow care workers defied Mr Charters and complied with the man’s wishes.
The witness claimed that Mr Charters told the man: “Don’t be so stupid, you don’t need to go to bed.”
Mr Ewing, in his cross examination, said: “Mr Charters did not call a resident stupid. This is something you made up.”
Dinah Eaves, the proprietor of the home, said one member of staff complained directly to her, while two other had commented that Mr Charters was abrupt and they did not like working with him.
Following a staff meeting in which more staff members complained about him, Ms Eaves told Mr Charters to hand in his notice as it was “in the best interest of the care home”.
In July 2016, Mr Charters was cleared to work again after the NMC found 10 of the charges not proven. Of the four charges which were proven, none were deemed by the panel to amount to misconduct. See our story here.
