A nurse has avoided a prison sentence after he reportedly used a patient’s vagina as a ventriloquist’s dummy in front of bemused colleagues.
The nurse, 58-year-old William Kennedy, reportedly ‘pulled the patient’s labia apart’ and pretended it was talking, as he carried out an examination on the patient at Cwmgelli Lodge Care Home in Blackwood, South Wales.
Kennedy apparently moved the terminally-ill patient’s vagina around, and said: ‘Hello, my name is [Patient A].’ The nurse was later convicted of ill-treating a patient who ‘lacked mental capacity’.
Kennedy, however, believes the ‘socially awkward situation’ has been blown of proportion, saying the situation happened when he forgot to take his medication, and even trying to point the finger at the other people in the room.
A panel for the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said Kennedy was ‘blasé’ as he discussed the incident, Wales Online reports. They described the 58-year-old as: ‘justifying and minimising the offence…describing it as having been blown out of proportion, relying on the absence of sexual motivation and his own sexual orientation’.
Kennedy was given a community order for his conviction. His current employer, Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, are said to be aware of the conviction, while the NMC agreed on a number of conditions to be placed on Kennedy for the next 18 months.
The panel’s reports stated:
The panel considered that the conviction in Gwent Magistrates’ Court and the alleged behaviour reported to the NMC were very serious and gave rise to real concerns about patient safety and public protection.
They added the panel ‘had regard to the fact that there had been no allegations of repetition of the behaviour but remained concerned given the seriousness of the allegations’. The panel ‘therefore concluded that some form of interim order is necessary on the grounds of public protection’.
As a result, the 58-year-old won’t be allowed to carry out ‘intimate’ examinations or clinical procedures, and must not be the nurse in charge of any shift.
Panel chairman Philip Sayce said:
There were concerns raised about the level of Mr Kennedy’s insight regarding his conviction when discussing the incident with his probation officer.
In addition there was a concern about whether or not he had fully disclosed the details of his conviction when seeking employment with a previous employer.
Kennedy will be supervised during working hours by a line manage, mentor or supervisor, and must report to a line manager for monthly discussions about professional practice and behaviour.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.