A psychiatric nurse who took funds from patients at the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin has been found guilty of professional misconduct on four counts at a fitness-to-practise inquiry.
The nurse, Patrick Farrell, was not present at the inquiry, which took place at the Nursing and Midwifery Board’s headquarters in Blackrock, Co Dublin.
The inquiry heard Mr Farrell failed to deposit a total of €80 belonging to three separate patients at the hospital in autumn 2011.
Dishonourable
His conduct was described as “clearly dishonourable and disgraceful” and amounted to “a serious breach of trust”, inquiry chairman Noel Giblin said. Sanctions will be determined at a later date.
The inquiry heard that on October 23rd, 2011, Mr Farrell (45) failed to deposit €20 into a safe for Patient A, failed to deposit €10 for Patient B on October 30th, 2011, and failed to deposit €50 for Patient C on December 17th, 2011.
Family members can give money to patients at the hospital in Dundrum, Dublin for them to use within it.
Paul Braham, who was director of nursing at the hospital in 2011, told the inquiry these matters came to his attention over the Christmas period of 2011.The amount of money was not the issue, he said, but “it’s the fact that trust had been severely breached on more than one occasion”.
This breach of trust “cannot be tolerated or defended”, Mr Braham added.
Counsel for the chief executive of the nursing board, Ronan Kennedy BL, read from correspondence sent from Mr Farrell, dated March 8th last.
In it Mr Farrell said he had made mistakes regarding the handling of patients’ money. He said all funds had been repaid and he had apologised to the victims.