Mid Staffs: accused nurse breaks down

A Mid-Staffordshire nurse accused of refusing to help a patient who had recently had an abortion, broke down in tears at her disciplinary hearing today.

Senior nurse Tracy White is alleged to have said about the patient: “she can wait, if you can do that to your baby.”

But Mrs White began to cry as she gave evidence about the alleged incident, saying: “I wouldn’t have said that, for personal reasons.”

She told the Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing she had been in a similar situation and it was this allegation she found most upsetting.

Tracy White (left) and her colleague Sharon Turner (right) are both accused of several charges of poor nursing, lying about records and using abusive language towards staff and patients.

Both were senior nurses at the Mid-Staffordshire Trust, where hundreds of patients died because of neglect and a lack of basic care.

Last month, the Francis Inquiry into the scandal found a culture of staff failure at the trust, which led to “horrific” and “shocking” experiences for patients.

Mrs White and Mrs Turner are some of the first staff to face a disciplinary hearing, although no senior managers have yet been held accountable.

Both nurses worked in the Accident and Emergency Department. They are accused of falsifying records about discharge times and pressuring other staff to do so, to try and meet targets.

Turner and White also allegedly transferred patients to wards in soiled bedsheets, in attempt to remove them from the department quicker.

Mrs Turner is also said to have used racist language towards Asian colleagues such as referring to them as “the suicide bombers.”

Asked how she felt about the charges, Mrs Turner told the hearing she found the charges “distressing and hurtful”, adding “they don’t reflect the kind of nurse I am.”

Mrs White described being “intimidated and frightened” of some senior managers. She said one manager was “one of the scariest people I ever met.”

She denies this led her to fiddle discharge times saying “If you changed anything they would know who it was and you were aware they were watching.”

Asked about an incident when she had allegedly refused to help lift an elderly woman and called her “a naughty little monkey,” Mrs White said she did not remember the patient, but that she had never refused to lift a patient.

She said she would not use that term and could not imagine any nurse saying it to a patient.

Mrs White described a fellow nurse who had given evidence to the hearing about this incident as either having confused her with someone else or “lying”.

The hearing continues.