Care home nurse 'tried taking blood pressure reading from patient’s broken arm'

A care home nurse tried to take a blood pressure reading from a patient’s broken arm while she was recuperating after a hospital stay, a disciplinary panel has heard.

Julie Elizabeth Burton, who worked at Shrewsbury’s Mount House and Severn View care home, also stands accused of failing to call paramedics or send “Patient A” back to hospital after concerning temperature and fluid intake readings.

Appearing before a Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practise panel, she admitted not carrying out the required two-hourly observations, but denies seven other charges.

The hearing continues.

Michelle Middleton-Price, who was general manager of the Barchester Healthcare group home at the time, said Patient A arrived at the Frankwell site as a “step-down” patient, having been recently discharged from hospital. She had been prescribed antibiotics to treat a chest infection, which Ms Middleton-Price said Ms Burton knew.

Isabelle Knight, the barrister presenting the case for the NMC, asked whether Ms Burton was also aware of the fractured arm.

“It should have been in the discharge information from the hospital,” Ms Middleton-Price said. 

“And, if I remember rightly, I’m sure the family pointed it out to her.” 

Ms Burton stands accused of attempting to take the blood pressure reading on May 26, 2018, and failing to raise the alarm after the concerning readings.

Ms Middleton-Price told the panel Patient A’s recorded temperature reading of 38 degrees centigrade – 1 to 1.5 degrees above the healthy range – was grounds for “automatically ringing 999” for a patient like her. She added that her low fluid levels also put her “at risk of dehydration” which would probably be treated with an IV drip, something they did not provide at the home.

The panel heard that Patient A arrived at the care home in mid-June, and the complaint, lodged by her son, covered aspects of her care throughout her stay.

Panel member Pauline Pratt asked Ms Middleton-Price: “What other investigations did you undertake about this lady’s care, apart from those about Julie’s practice on this specific date?”

Ms Middleton-Price said she could not remember. She did not have detailed information in front of her and “vast numbers” of investigations had been carried out.

The panel heard that, in January 2018, a previous NMC panel imposed an order on Ms Burton requiring her to inform the regulator if she faced disciplinary action at work. One of the charges against her is that she breached this by not telling the NMC when Barchester Healthcare began disciplinary proceedings against her that summer.

Ms Middleton-Price said she was not made aware of that condition when she arrived at Mount House and Severn View and became Ms Burton’s manager.

“Would you normally get a handover of such things?”, Ms Pratt asked.

Ms Middleton-Price said: “I had never had a nurse who had restriction in the past, but I would have expected, to protect myself and protect Julie, that the information would have been shared.”