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

An industrial tribunal recently found that a care worker was unfairly dismissed when he revealed the practice.

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.

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. Since no malpractice was involved, no action was taken.

Full story in The Times.