Night nurse 'left baby in a soaking cot for hours'

Dawn Henry, 36, who worked on a children's ward at Leeds General Infirmary, faces misconduct charges.

The staff nurse, from Liversedge, West Yorkshire, was on night duty on the ward on January 20 2008 when other members of staff became concerned about her work.

Fellow nurse Laura Osborne, who took over from Ms Henry on the day shift, told a hearing in central London the seven-year-old boy who had just had bowel surgery had been left on the bedpan for "a good couple of hours".

She told the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) conduct and competence committee she was told to look after the boy, named only as Patient A, on the morning of the 21st and asked Ms Henry if there was anything she needed to know.

She said: "I asked her if there was anything else to add to what I'd been told in handover and she just said 'He's been on a bedpan all night and he needs a bath because he stinks'.

"I thought it was quite inappropriate in front of all the other patients."

She told the hearing she had to clean Patient A and remove the used bedpan. She said: "He had a red ring around his bottom from where he'd been sat on the bedpan."

Asked how long she thought he had been left, she said: "I would expect a good couple of hours." Sarah Page, a barrister for the NMC, said Ms Henry had also left a five-month-old baby in a cot "saturated with urine" while on the same shift.

Ms Henry, who was not at the hearing, was suspended after other members of staff complained. She faces eight charges including failing to provide appropriate care, speaking in an inappropriate manner to a colleague and not keeping proper records.

Healthcare assistant Lisa Butlin said she had been shocked by the state in which she found the baby, known as Patient B, when she checked him in the morning.

She told the hearing his clothes and blanket were wet and his cot was marked where urine had been left to dry.

Asked what had been so upsetting, she said: "Just seeing a child lying in a wet bed crying and dry urine around the sides of it."

She added she believed he must have been left unchanged for "more than a couple of hours" to get in that state, adding: "Personally, to me you wouldn't leave a baby that long."

The hearing was told Patient B had undergone an operation for complications caused by previous abdominal surgery.

Sarah Fletcher, the matron in charge of children's surgery at the hospital, told the hearing she suspended Ms Henry at a meeting on January 23.

The hearing was told she met Ms Henry, who had worked as a nurse for around 12 years, again on February 4 to investigate the allegations.

The panel heard Ms Henry denied making the alleged comments about Patient A during the meeting.

Notes taken at the meeting were read to the panel who were told Ms Henry said she had asked Patient A if he wanted to get off the bed pan but he refused.

Asked if that was an acceptable reason for Ms Henry's behaviour, Mrs Fletcher said: "No. Children might not know what is in their best interests."

She also said 15 minutes was the longest the patient should have been kept on the bed pan.

Mrs Fletcher said Ms Henry had taken time off work with a "depressive illness" but she considered it would not affect her work.

She said: "We actually took advice from the GP and occupational health relating to this and it was felt she was fit to work."

The hearing continues tomorrow.