Former manager of Derry care home suspended from nursing

The former manager of a Derry care home at the centre of an abuse scandal has been suspended from working as a nurse.

Ralphs Close provides accommodation at the Gransha site in the Waterside for 16 adults with learning difficulties.

The home opened to residents in 2010 but in 2012 the Western Trust, which manages the facility, received allegations from whistle-blowers that residents at the home were being physically and verbally abused.

The first residents at Ralphs Close were former long-stay patients of the Mourne House at Stradreagh Hospital on the Gransha site.

Staff from Mourne House also transferred to Ralphs Close with the residents.

A total of 45 allegations were made covering the period from 2010 and 2012. Of those, 22 allegations were later substantiated.

Five were of intentional physical abuse, and four were of verbal abuse involving several members of staff.

While at the time the trust would not detail the other substantiated allegations, they stressed that there were no allegations of sexual abuse.

The Trust referred the matter to the PSNI but police decided not to take any further action.

The Trust, however, went ahead with a disciplinary and adult safeguarding investigation.

Eleven members of staff were suspended during the investigation.

Among those suspended was Michael Battersby who had been manager of Ralphs Close from November 2011 to September 2012.

Mr Battersby resigned from his employment with the Trust in March 2015.

A case involving his behaviour during his time as manager of Ralphs Close came before the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Conduct and Competence Committee in Belfast last week.

This committee is responsible for sanctioning nurses whose professional behaviour has been called into question.

Mr Battersby declined to attend the hearing into his case.

The allegations against Mr Battersby included that he failed to record and investigate injuries sustained by some residents at Ralphs Close.

He was also accused of being involved in failures as regards the completion of care plans and documentation for a number of ‘vulnerable’ residents.

Another charge was that he failed to implement a non-smoking policy among staff which led to cigarette butts being discarded around the residents’ accommodation.

The hearing was told that one of the residents would then pick up the cigarette butts and eat them.

In his absence, the charges against Mr Battersny were proven at the Belfast hearing and he was suspended from working as a nurse for 12 months due to the ‘seriousness’ of the case.

In its ruling, a copy of which has been seen by the Derry News, the committee said they believed Mr Battersby’s actions had placed residents at ‘unwarranted risk of harm’.

“Mr Battersby’s failings as regards Resident C resulted in him having access to cigarette butts and not being provided with medical attention following a head injury,” the panel’s report stated.

“Mr Battersby has also brought the profession into disrepute and breached the fundamental tenets of the profession.

“His failings impacted upon the care of exceptionally vulnerable residents with learning disabilities who had medium to high levels of dependency. The panel had no doubt that at the time of the incidents in question Mr Battersby’s fitness to practise was impaired by reason of his misconduct.”

While he declined to attend or give evidence at the disciplinary hearing, Mr Battersby did send the tribunal a written statement.

In the emailed statement, which was sent on April 5 this year, he said he fully realised that his performance while in charge of Ralphs Close ‘fell short of the standards expected of both such a role and of myself’.

“I certainly believe that I should not have placed myself in that position. In saying that, I have to state that I never did go in to work to do any deliberate harm to anyone,” he wrote.

“However, I do believe that senior management within the western trust did not sufficiently plan for the transition that moving from Mourne House to Ralphs Close entailed.

“Moving from what was a hospital environment to what was supposed to be a residential environment was challenging. And this was done without any training as to what that entailed. And whereas I realise that such people are charged looking after the money side of things, I was spending a considerable portion of my time trying to reduce the establishment within the unit.”

In his statement, Mr Battersby said he was glad that Ralphs Close was now ‘much better staffed, and the manager better supported now, and only wish that it could have been so much earlier’.

“Moreover, I do not feel that as a manager I was well supported,” he added.

“As a new and inexperienced manager, who received no formal training as such, I was left very much to my own devices and I received no formal supervision at any time.

“As to the charges against me, I realise that there is a considerable amount of evidence against me, but I will go back to what I said earlier, that I in no way deliberately intended any harm to come to the residents of Ralphs Close.”

The committee panel said they were satisfied that Mr Battersby had demonstrated remorse for his ‘failures’ and demonstrated a level of insight into his ‘shortcomings’.

The panel also highlighted that there had been no previous concerns about his professional behaviour during his 30-year nursing career.

“The panel also noted that Mr Battersby did not have the benefit of sufficient support from his superiors and there were clearly gaps in his training,” the panel stated.

“The panel note that each of the NMC witnesses accepted totally Mr Battersby’s position in this regard.

“However, the panel has been presented with no evidence to demonstrate any steps Mr Battersby has taken to remedy his misconduct.

“Mr Battersby resigned from his position in 2015 and the panel has no knowledge as to whether he has been in practice since.

“The panel therefore has no evidence as to whether Mr Battersby has remedied his misconduct.

“The panel concluded that there remains a risk of repetition of Mr Battersby’s misconduct, and therefore it follows that he may act in such a way in the future so as to put residents at unwarranted risk of harm, bring the nursing profession into disrepute and breach a fundamental tenet of the profession.”

Speaking in February 2014, after the completion of the Western Trust’s investigation into the allegations of abuse of residents at Ralphs Close, Trevor Millar, Director of Adult Mental Health & Disability Services at the Western Trust, said they had apologised to the families of the affected residents.

"These allegations were taken very seriously by the Trust and it has been a very difficult and complex investigation,” he said.

Mr Millar said the investigation into abuse allegations had been 'thorough and robust'.

"I would like to reinforce the apology on behalf of the Trust and our non-acceptance of anything below the standard expected."