Inquest adjourned after accused nurse fails to turn up

An inquest into the death of an Alzheimer’s sufferer has had to be adjourned after a nurse, accused of leaving her on the floor because he was praying, did not turn up.

Abdul Bhutto, an agency nurse, was in charge at Valley Park Nursing Home near Barnsley when 87-year-old Dorothy Griffiths, who had Alzheimer’s, fell to the floor. Another carer, Zoe Shaw, said that she went to the office to get assistance but was told by Bhutto that she would have to wait because he was on his prayer mat.

It took four hours for an ambulance to be called and Mrs Griffiths, who cut her head and suffered a gash to her hip, died the following day. Mrs Shaw told the inquest that she would have called an ambulance straight away but did not realise at the time that staff could overturn a nurses’ decision. Bhutto was the most senior nurse on duty that night because the senior carer had been there six of the previous seven nights and was therefore due a break.

Assistant deputy coroner, Donald Coutts-Wood, on adjourning the inquest, said that it would have to be reconvened because it was necessary to hear from Mr Bhutto who had denied being on duty that night, claiming to be on a course. A summons had to be issued for him to attend the hearing later in the year.

telegraph.co.uk/health/9162051/Woman-died-after-Muslim-nurse-refused-to-help-as-he-was-praying.html