'No malpractice' in drugged tea issue
Mount Carmel Hospital.
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.
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22 Comments
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John Vella
Jan 28th, 15:36
It is also normal practise that when patient is confused, at night, the nurse will call the doctor and ask for prescribtion of additional drugs over the phone. All drugs given are listed in patient's file.Sometimes this will happen every day on the same patient and maybe the nurse find it awkward to call doctor. Note that eventually the patient will be prescribed with additional night tratment.
John Vella
Jan 28th, 15:23
I worked at Forensic unit few months ago. It is normal practice that drugs are mixed with water and never given in a solid state. Nurses will make sure that treatment is taken and no drugs are spit out. Keep in mind, patients there are convicts transfered from corradino who "where diagnosed" as psycholigical insane and nurses must make sure all treatment is admininistered.
P Agius
Jan 28th, 20:27
Care workers are accountable to the nursing officer or the nurses in-charge of the ward/unit. Care workers are not to be involved in collection and stocking of medicines, nor in the preparation and administration of medicines. Also cannot be detailed to carry out nursing duties such as:Blood pressure;Temperature,pulse and Respiration;Heamo Glucose Test;other parameters. Care working duties at MCH.
George Camilleri
Jan 28th, 13:32
Are these the standards our health authorities aspire for?
Usually, prescribed drugs are handed to the patient with a cup of water or any suitable liquid, and not crushed and mixed in tea.
It is circumstantially clear there was malpractice. But this is a bad time to admit to such horrific acts/mistakes, is it?
Don't worry, the public outside has brains, at least those willing to use them.
Victor Laiviera
Jan 28th, 13:11
This is truly incredible - out of this world.
A Cachia
Jan 28th, 12:11
We do not have a whistle blower act in place and now the authorities are also covering up and calling these people liars?
Carmelo Aquilina
Jan 28th, 11:52
But it has to be prescribed and the patient has to be under the mental health act or incapacitated. On the face of it this is a case of nurses giving unauthorized drugs hidden in tea instead of working therapeutically with patients . This is not OK, This is a scandal.
Franco Abela
Jan 28th, 11:21
No Malpractice..... IF THE DRUGS WERE PRESCRIBED BY THE HOSPITAL DOCTOR, WHICH IN THIS CASE THEY WERE NOT!
Francis Saliba M.D.
Jan 28th, 14:44
How do you know that they were not prescribed by a hospital doctor to be administered by the nurses in certain circumstances only?
Adrian Zahra
Jan 28th, 10:21
Administering medicines in tea is bad clinical practice. How can they check if the medicines have dissolved properlythrough the opaque liquid? Are the tea and coffee cups labelled to ensure that the right medicine reaches the right patient? Who checks which tablets go in which cups against the doctor's prescription? Or were all patients being given a narcotic so the nurses can have a quiet night?
Paul Debono
Jan 28th, 09:57
No malpractice when nurses administer drugs not prescribed by doctors with Teas? What kind of standards do we have at Mount Carmel ? To me this sounds like patient were being administered drugs without their knowledge....
Eric Soames
Jan 28th, 10:41
Sometimes patients in a Mental Health ward need to be stabilized before being reasoned with, that's why they're Court ordered there in the first place.
Peter Murray
Jan 28th, 13:31
Dear Eric
This "sometimes" scenario you refer too -were these applicable in this case or do you know more than the 2 whistleblowers?
Peter Murray
Jan 28th, 09:52
Who is this "spokeseman for the Community Care Parliamentary Secretariat "(why not the Minister Of Health?)when was this inquiry conducted ,by whom and were the two(2) whistle blowers -a female nurse and Mr Agius-,invited to give evidence or why they simply telling lies or misguided?
Peter Murray
Jan 28th, 09:51
Who is this "spokeseman for the Community Care Parliamentary Secretariat "(why not the Minister Of Health?)when was this inquiry conducted ,by whom and were the two(2) whistle blowers -a female nurse and Mr Agius-,invited to give evidence or why they simply telling lies or misguided?
Ivan Tabone
Jan 28th, 09:02
“It found there was no malpractice involved. For clinical reasons, sometimes medicine can be given in liquid form,”
But Patrick Agius said that he saw "nurses administering medications not prescribed by the hospital’s doctors"
So was he lying? Were the medications prescribed? Obviously, the truth will never be known.
Joseph E Briffa
Jan 28th, 08:07
In life one has to make choices. In most instances it is a matter of going for the lesser of two evils.
Christian Sciberras
Jan 28th, 09:24
I'm curious to know about the other evil....beating up patients by any chance?
Peter Murray
Jan 28th, 09:47
Like will that old adage -"its better the devil"- you know that when you choose the lesser of two evils (and why should care workers have to make this choice ?) you are lefty with what ...AN EVIL DEVIL!
Eric Soames
Jan 28th, 07:41
If it was a case of either using the beverage to deliver the drug or heavy-handed restraint and forcible injection, I would say tea is the kinder way.
Carmelo Aquilina
Jan 28th, 11:55
No it is not - it is illegal to give drugs without consent unless allowed by the mental health act OR by a guardian if the person is incapacitated. It clearly was not the case here and probably the drugs were not even authorized by the consultant. Does your knowledge of mental health and the law tell you other reasons ? If so tell us.
Eric Soames
Jan 28th, 13:57
Carmelo Aquilina: My comment was based on the premise that the patients were Court ordered into a Mental Health facility. Even then, of course, it would depend on the medication involved. In the US patients have a constitutional right to refuse psych drugs but from my observations are still tranquillized, for their own and others safety if they are physically out of control.
Please choose the reason of your report below: