A NURSE who was caught on a secret camera letting her colleague abuse an elderly patient has been suspended for 12 months.

The incident came to light after footage from a secret CCTV device the woman's daughter left in her mum's room recorded the events.

The abuse took place at Eccleston Court Care home in July 2017, when the accused, Adelaide Nonyamezelo Dendere, was working there.

The incident surrounds the administering of pain relief in a patient's shoulder, who also suffers from dementia.

This means that she was sometimes resistant to care being provided to her, so procedure was put in place where if the patient refused treatment she would be left alone and staff would return later to provide care.

However the recorded CCTV footage shows that Dendere stood back and facilitated her colleague, who is not a nurse, in manhandling the patient to administer pain relief through "inappropriate moving and handing techniques".

The video showed the elderly patient shouting out in distress and that Dendere ignored this and continued to help her colleague in trying to apply a lidocaine patch.

Therefore the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found that though Dendere did not abuse the patient herself, she allowed the abuse to happen and failed to report the incident.

The report says: "It is alleged that you did not intervene when Colleague 1 handled Patient A in a rough manner and you continued to administer a lidocaine patch to Patient A when she appeared distressed.

"It is further alleged that you did not make a written record of this incident nor did you report the matter to safeguarding nor escalate the matter to a senior member of staff."

The misconduct hearing held on February 27 found Dendere had failed in her duty and suspended her for 12 months.

The decision made by the NMC, states: "The panel concluded that the incident amounted to a serious abuse of a vulnerable elderly patient, who lacked the capacity to complain, that occurred whilst you were present and you were the nurse in charge.

"You did not do anything to stop this abuse. The panel concluded that this behaviour was sufficiently serious to amount to misconduct.

"Further, the panel considered your actions were a breach of the trust that patients, their families and the public place in the nursing profession."

"The panel considered that a period of suspension would provide sufficient public protection while an order was in force.

"Further, it would give you time to reflect on the matters that brought you before this panel and to develop your insight."

It also noted that Dendere has "expressed remorse and apologised for your behaviour," before adding that "she became a nurse to look after people with love, dignity and respect and accepts that her actions showed a lack of compassion that let Patient A down".

Dendere also apologised to Patient A’s family, the nursing profession and the panel.

The suspension will come into effect after the 28 day appeal period. An interim suspension order was put in place to cover this.

You can read the full report from the hearing here.