Nurse Banned For Punching Patient.

Woman in her 80s was silenced by a fist and a blanket

Manchester Evening News

A nurse who repeatedly punched an elderly widow and stuffed a blanket into her mouth to stifle her cries has been struck off. The Nursing and Midwifery Council ruled that unrepentant Nomsa Mpetes’s name would be removed from their register.

Npete also placed her hand over the patient’s mouth for two minutes to enforce silence. A colleague referred to as Mrs C said: “I would have liked to intervene, but I was stuck on my chair I was so shocked”.

Mpete fled the country as police began to investigate her behaviour at Bedford Nursing and Residential Home in Leigh, Greater Manchester. Mpete, now living in Surrey returned to work through a southern-based agency.

The panel heard her ‘energetic’ patient who was tiny and in her 80s was once a successful businesswoman and could be physically and verbally aggressive. She had a fear of being alone and was often allowed to sleep on a reclining chair in the unit’s lounge near staff. Mrs C said the patient woke “in a daze” at 4am one day and began shouting. “She was trying to get up but Mpete was pushing her back saying ‘shut up, you’ll wake the other residents’. She said as the patient began waving her arms and legs about, Mpete grabbed them and the woman hit her in the stomach - Mpete hit her back with her fist about five times. Mrs C said Mpete tried to pin the patient down using a blanket then lifted the blanket so it was in her mouth.

The panel found Mpete guilty of misconduct and chairperson Kathy McLean said patients were entitled to receive careful and competent care “which protects their safety and dignity. This was an extremely serious incident of abuse to an elderly patient in Mpete’s care. There is especially no evidence of remorse or any change in the nurse’s practice”.