The health authorities have denied any form of malpractice in the wake of claims that nurses had mixed drugs with the hot drinks of difficult patients at Mount Carmel Hospital’s forensic unit.

The statement contrasts with a recent decision of the industrial tribunal, which found that a care worker who was sacked after he blew the whistle on the practice had been unfairly dismissed.

Patrick Agius, who was employed by a private company, was fired after he reported seeing nurses administering medications not prescribed by the hospital’s doctors in the patients’ tea, which he then refused to hand out.

The tribunal pointed out that no evidence was presented during the proceedings to show the Health Department or the private company that employed the care worker had conducted an investigation into the reported malpractice.

A spokesman for the Community Care Parliamentary Secretariat said an inquiry had been carried out.

“It found there was no malpractice involved. For clinical reasons, sometimes medicine can be given in liquid form,” the spokesman said.

When asked whether any action had been taken against the nurses accused of administering the drugs, the spokesman said that “since no malpractice was involved, no action was taken”.

The tribunal said the company had only acted after Mr Agius and another nurse blew the whistle on what they claimed was happening at the hospital’s forensic unit. It ruled that Mr Agius had been illegally sacked and ordered the company to pay him €5,000 in compensation.

When asked whether the care worker had been reinstated, the spokesman said that he was “not a hospital employee but worked for a private agency”.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.