Rush Hall care home neglect case: Woman receives suspended sentence

A Limavady woman who wilfully neglected an 86-year-old woman has avoided jail after receiving a four-month suspended sentence.

Joanne Doherty, of Anderson Crescent in the town was also told she would not be allowed to care for any patient for any considerable length of time when she was sentenced at Limavady Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old care worker neglected Eileen Bruce in Rush Hall care home in November 2013. The court heard the neglect emerged when two other care workers treated her. Eileen Bruce complained of pains in her side, and said she had fallen while under Doherty’s care on 24 November.

A doctor examined the elderly woman and found she had a fractured shoulder.

The court heard Doherty was asked by other staff if Mrs Bruce had fallen, but denied it. However, another care worker told staff they had heard the patient had fallen in the defendant’s presence. Doherty was subsequently suspended from duty for failing to report an incident.

The court heard when the defendant was interviewed, she had broken regulations and decided to move Mrs Bruce on her own, and they had both fallen. She claimed the patient had fallen on top of her and she did not think she had been hurt.

The prosecution said “a conspiracy of silence had been decided upon”. However, Doherty said if she had realised the patient’s shoulder had been broken, she would have reported it. The court was told that the patient died on 14 March 2014.

In sentencing, District Judge Liam McNally said it was a serious offence. He said the public must have confidence in those who work as carers. Judge McNally said Mrs Bruce was at the centre of the case. He said the court had to take into account the seriousness of the offence, and the length of time and degree of harm Mrs Bruce had suffered. Judge McNally told Doherty she had “caused unnecessary suffering overnight” to Mrs Bruce who was in “a great deal of pain and discomfort” between the time of the fall and her treatment at hospital which, he said, “could have been avoided”.

Doherty’s jail sentence is suspended for two years. She was also fined £500.

(See Friday’s Derry Journal for full report).