A NURSE with a ‘lack of compassion’ has been punished for leaving a patient sitting on the toilet with the door open.

Ghazala Adman took the patient to the loo, leaving the door open and ‘compromising their dignity’, at Royal Blackburn Hospital, in April last year.

Mrs Adman then left her shift knowing that the patient had not been able to defecate without contaminating the toilet area.

Another patient’s son then had to assist the patient, referred to as ‘Patient Z’, from the toilet back to his bed with faeces on his hands, according to a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) report.

The NMC said: “This thereby compromised the dignity of patient Z and raised serious concerns about infection control.”

The panel also heard that concerns had been raised about Mrs Adman’s attitude towards colleagues and patients.

She was also found to have given medication to the patient when it was not necessary, and to have administered another drug to a patient in the wrong way.

Mrs Adman’s failing relate to when she was working as an agency nurse at the hospital.

The NMC also heard that Mrs Adman had made a string of medication errors while working as an agency nurse at Alistre Lodge Nursing Home in Lytham St Annes, on December 4, 2017.

The NMC said: “In relation to Patient Z, Mrs Adman failed to provide adequate personal care and failed to treat the patient with dignity and compassion.

“Mrs Adman accepts that her failings were unacceptable and that her acts and omissions had fallen far below the standards expected of her.”

The NMC said that Mrs Adman’s failings were serious departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse and involved basic, fundamental nursing practice.

They said her errors placed a number of patients at a substantial risk of unwarranted harm.

However they said no other concerns have been raised regarding Mrs Adman’s practice, that she had made full admissions to the charge, and had expressed remorse for her failings.

Deciding to put conditions on her nursing practice for 12 months, the NMC said: “The panel was of the view that to impose a suspension order would be disproportionate given the level of insight that Mrs Adman has demonstrated into her failings, and her willingness to address the concerns identified in her nursing practice."