Essex nurse who gave placebo to brain tumour patient struck off

A former nurse at St Fillians care home in Colchester has been struck off after admitting giving a patient a placebo instead of morphine

A nurse has been struck off after giving sugar and water to a brain tumour patient instead of morphine.

Vijayan Rajoo, a nurse at St Fillians care home in Colchester, Essex, felt the man did not need the pain relief, a misconduct hearing was told.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel said his actions showed a "serious lack of compassion".

Excelcare which runs the home said they found Mr Rajoo failed in "keystones" of their approach to care.

He was struck off the register but has 28 days to appeal the decision.

Mr Rajoo was referred to the NMC by the care home provider, Excelcare, following an internal investigation in 2019.

It was alleged he had on one or more occasions given the patient sugar and water instead of oral morphine between November 2018 and June 2019, and failed to make a note of doing so.

As well as providing the placebo to a patient, he was alleged to have failed to have checked the contents of the controlled drug cupboard on one or more occasions in June 2019, despite signing to say he had.

Mr Rajoo told a manager at the care home he felt the patient did not need the morphine

'Didn't taste right'

During an internal investigation, Mr Rajoo admitted not checking the cupboard "probably due to laziness" and not giving the patient the prescribed morphine.

A statement from the manger to the hearing said Mr Rajoo told her he did not give morphine to the patient when he asked for it because he "felt he did not need it".

Instead he told her he provided a sugar and water solution which he told the patient was the painkiller.

"[The patient] did say it didn't taste right and after Vijay telling me this it made sense," the manager said.

The NMC panel said withholding pain relief from a vulnerable patient with a learning difficulty "demonstrated a lack of compassion and understanding".

An Excelcare spokeswoman said they were proud of other team members at the care home who picked up on and reported the actions of Mr Rajoo, which resulted in an internal investigation and subsequent NMC misconduct hearing.

"Compassion, professionalism and truth are keystones of our approach to all care, our investigation found these to be lacking in this case."