A WEST Dunbartonshire nurse has been struck off for misconduct after she failed to visit a vulnerable family following a choking incident.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has removed Maureen Keenan from its register after a disciplinary panel decided she had put patients at “an unwarranted risk of harm”.

According to a report of the disciplinary hearing, Ms Keenan, while employed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, failed in December 2018 to undertake a safety or hazard check of a client’s home following a choking incident involving a newborn baby that resulted in a visit to A&E.

The NMC panel also ruled that Ms Keenan – who had worked in mental health nursing since 2002 and had been a learning disabilities nurse since 1992 – failed to undertake a well-being check despite the client finding the incident “terrifying”.

The report of the misconduct hearing says the panel found that the band seven nurse “did not think that it was necessary to undertake a well-being check, despite the incident being a traumatic event for both mother and baby”.

It said that when Ms Keenan was asked why she had not demonstrated how to perform CPR or to handle a choking incident, she said she “wouldn’t be qualified how to teach a parent how to give CPR to a child”.

The panel’s report also heard evidence which it said proved Ms Keenan spoke to a colleague in an angry and hostile manner in a different incident in February 2019.

According to the report, the colleague gave evidence saying Ms Keenan’s “language was hostile”, that she “had both fists clenched and [her] jaw was clenched and [she] had a very firm expression on [her] face”.

And the panel also found that between October 2018 and January 2019 Ms Keenan failed to maintain accurate records and failed to complete visits to different patients.

The report of the disciplinary hearing, published on the NMC’s website, says Ms Keenan resigned from the health board’s family nurse partnership in February 2019 following the incidents, which occurred while she worked at the Cairnbrook Centre in the Easterhouse area of Glasgow.

According to the report, Ms Keenan’s representative, David Blair, told the hearing that she had “now had an opportunity to reflect” on the panel’s findings and “now accept that your actions amount to misconduct and that your fitness to practise is currently impaired”.

It adds: “Mr Blair informed the panel that although you acted on the basis of your honestly held beliefs at the time, you now had an opportunity to see why the panel found the charges proved.”

Of 20 allegations across a total of nine charges, the panel found 10 proved or admitted and 10 not proved.

The panel’s report states: “Clients were put at an unwarranted risk of harm and that there was a real risk of harm to patients.

“There is a real risk of repetition given that the charges took place over a period of time and were wide ranging. In addition the misconduct was not corrected despite guidance and supervision being put in place.”

Ms Keenan was suspended for 18 months.