A nurse left a dementia patient locked in a freezing cold room overnight, a hearing was told.
Lindiwe Malape allegedly left the resident, who cannot be named, behind a locked door despite the need for half-hourly checks.
Ms Malape claimed there was no need to take action because she could hear “snoring” from the patient, who was only rescued when a handyman was called to Fairfield Care Home, Inverness, the following morning.
Inside the room, nurses found a scene of chaos and established that the window had been left open all night.
A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) disciplinary panel heard evidence from a nurse working at Fairfield in June 2014.
Ann Ferguson-Hannah told the hearing in Edinburgh that the door to the patient’s room was only opened after she arrived for her day shift – with another witness claiming it had been locked since midnight.
She said Ms Malape “did not appear alarmed or upset” that they had been unable to reach the patient, having lost the master key.
The patient – referred to as Patient A throughout proceedings – usually required half-hourly checks owing to the severity of his condition.
He was eventually reached after a handyman was called to the home, which charges up to £540 a week.
Ms Ferguson-Hannah said they found him on the floor and that he had been sick and was covered in red marks.
She said: “The room was freezing and Patient A had pulled all the covers off the bed to try and cover himself.
“The table was overturned – pictures had been pulled off the walls.
“He was sitting very quietly under the window and not making any noise.”
The nurse also said that the care home owner, Taj Manda, failed to tell the sister of the patient that he had been locked in his room overnight.
She went on: “In my professional opinion this was a very severe incident.
“The whole affair had upset me greatly.
“As far as I was aware no action had been taken. The home carried on as normal.”
She said that she was the whistleblower who made referral to the NMC.
The panel also heard from two other witnesses – care assistants who had been working at the time – who confirmed that the door had been locked for a large portion of the night.
Ms Malape was not present at the hearing, nor did she arrange for a representative to appear on her behalf. Case Presenter Yusu Segovia said: “It’s obvious…that there should have been attempts to open that door.”
The fitness to practise hearing continues.
