Nurse who fell asleep at Weymouth mental health unit suspended

Inemesit Inyang was working at Westhaven Hospital's Linden Unit in Weymouth when the incident happened

A mental health nurse who fell asleep when he was supposed be observing a patient has been suspended.

Inemesit Inyang was working at Westhaven Hospital's Linden Unit in Weymouth when the patient filmed him sleeping in 2018.

The patient then tried to self-harm before they were spotted by another staff member and restrained.

Mr Inyang admitted falling asleep but a panel found he failed to tell a colleague about it in a handover note.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel said his actions "fell seriously short" of those expected and that he had "failed to be open and candid" in the incident's immediate aftermath.

As the patient was being restrained their nasogastric (NG) tube was dislodged and had to be reinserted during a procedure under general anaesthetic the next day, the panel's report said.

The panel accepted Mr Inyang's falling asleep was "not deliberate" and that he now had a "good insight" into how it happened.

But it said there was still a risk of him "acting in a dishonest way in the future".

Abbey Akinoshun, for Mr Inyang, said he had worked in the UK since 2004 and that the incident was a "one-off in an otherwise unblemished career".

But the NMC panel said "the need to protect the public and uphold the public interest" meant that it had to impose a six-month suspension.