A blundering care home worker has been sanctioned for putting a patient at risk of harm after forgetting to administer their medication.
Teresa Smyth then tried to cover her tracks by binning the meds the following day, denying claims she had made an error to senior staff.
The Glasgow City Council social care worker at Crossmyloof Resource Centre was sanctioned at a meeting of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).
The decision made was that a warning would be placed on Ms Smyth's registration for 18 months.
The isolated incident at the care home service for adults took place in August 2017.
READ MORE: Intensive care patients put at risk after Glasgow nurse blunders
Ms Smyth has since shown remorse and apology.
She was found to have failed to administer a patient's morning blood pressure medication - Amlodipine and Bendroflumethazide.
The following day, she took the medication from the packet and disposed of them in a bin.
Ms Smyth then, wrongly, signed a sheet confirming she had in fact administered the medication and later denied any wrongdoing with senior staff.
The SSSC decision report found her practice was "impaired" for a number of reasons.
It reads: "In failing to administer prescribed medication to a service user, you failed in your duty of care and placed the health and wellbeing of the service user at risk of harm.
"Social service workers are required to communicate in a truthful, open and honest manner in order to maintain the trust and confidence placed in them by vulnerable service users, employers and the wider public.
"Service users also have the right to expect that the care and support they received from social service workers will protect them from harm.
"In attempting to conceal your mistake and providing false information to your employer in relation to your involvement in the medication error, your behaviour was dishonest and was a significant abuse of the trust placed in you by both your employer and the service user.
"Your behaviour had the potential to hinder your employer’s efforts to timeously address the medication error and ensure the health and wellbeing of the service user."
The report added that while the behaviour is "serious", "it did not result in any harm to service users".
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel