A care worker from Inverness has been given a warning for failing to check on a patient and claiming afterwards that he had.
Colin Graham appeared before a Scottish Social Services Council panel last month to face charges relating to his work as a support worker for Birchwood Highland.
He was found to have failed to carry out a welfare check on a patient while working a night shift between April 16 and 17 last year.
He also failed to report that he did not carry out the check, and recorded in the patient’s daily report that they “were in the flat all night”.
The sub-committee considering the case found that Mr Graham’s behaviour amounted to misconduct.
The council has issued a warning which will apply for the next two years.
It found the social worker’s misconduct involved “dishonesty” and that there was a “concealment of wrong-doing, which carried with it an element of pre-meditated actions”.
Mr Graham was said to have made early admissions about his actions to his employers and the council, and had shown “genuine and timely insight about your failings”.
He was also said to have made clear his regret and made timely apologies.
The staff nurse who had been working with Mr Graham at the time of the incident said that he was “brilliant” at his job and that he had learned from the incident.
Mr Graham, described as unemployed at the time of the conduct hearing, also reported to the committee that he had “panicked” on the night in question after realising he had not carried out the welfare check.
