A care worker in the Highlands has been suspended – two years after being secretly recorded acting in an “unacceptable” way towards a 94-year-old woman.
The Press and Journal revealed last month that the Care Inspectorate had upheld three complaints against an Inverness nursing home where two workers were found to have acted in a “highly inappropriate” way towards dementia sufferer Doreen MacIntyre.
The pair were suspended after the incident in 2013 and later quit their jobs.
It has now emerged that one of the carers – believed to be married 46-year-old John George from Inverness – has been suspended from another job as a result of the recording.
He is understood to have been working as a nursing auxiliary at Raigmore Hospital.
An NHS Highland spokesman said: “This individual has been deactivated from his post pending an investigation.”
In 2013, the police investigated the case but they did not find any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Mrs MacIntyre’s daughter, Blan Bremner, burst into tears and was left “physically sick” after listening to a 16-hour tape she had recorded at the Kingsmills Nursing Home in Inverness.
Her mother’s pleas for help were ignored for long periods, and two employees were found to have given a slow round of applause to the pensioner after she had asked for “a hand”.
There were also conversations of a “sexual nature” in front of the elderly resident.
The workers – a male and a female – were suspended after the recording was made in September 2013 and later quit the home.
Last night, Mrs Bremner said she had contacted the NHS about the case at the time.
“Obviously as a family we are glad he has eventually been suspended,” she said.
“If he is reinstated I feel that would be a disgrace. I don’t think he should be in the care sector at all.
“I would like to find out who the girl was as well. She needs to be named and shamed too.
“I feel she was as bad as he was. She made no attempt to stop him or scold him for his behaviour. The two of them behaved appallingly.”