Blackpool nurse guilty of drugging patients for 'easy life'

Hudson was convicted after a trial at Preston Crown Court

A nurse has been found guilty of ill-treating patients by drugging them to "keep them quiet and compliant".

Preston Crown Court heard Catherine Hudson, 54, gave unprescribed sedatives to two patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital between February 2017 and November 2018 for an "easy life".

Jurors also convicted her of conspiring with Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to give a sedative to a third patient.

Hudson was found not guilty of ill-treating two other patients.

During the trial, the court heard how Hudson told a colleague in a text that she had sedated a patient "within an inch of her life", adding: "Bet she's flat for a week, ha ha."

The jury was told she used different drugs, including insomnia medication zopiclone, which can be life-threatening if given inappropriately.

Opening the case in September, prosecutor Peter Wright KC told the court Hudson and Wilmot "treated patients not with care and compassion but with contempt".

"They considered them, or some of them, to be an imposition, an irritation," he said.

'Out of spite'

The jury heard the pair were investigated after a student nurse witnessed events on work placement at the hospital's stroke unit and told the authorities in November 2018.

The student told police that when she raised concerns over the use of zopiclone, Hudson told her the patient had a do not resuscitate order in place "so she wouldn't be opened up if she died or... came to any harm".

Lancashire Police said a review of Hudson and Wilmot's messages revealed a significant number of exchanges describing patients and their families in "the most derogatory and cruellest terms".

Hudson drugged Aileen Scott, who was from Glasgow, but had been on holiday in Blackpool when she needed treatment

The force said one of Hudson's victims was Aileen Scott from Glasgow, who had been on holiday in Blackpool before needing hospital treatment.

A representative said the restrictions on prescription-only drugs on the stroke unit were "so lax" that staff would "help themselves and self-medicate or steal drugs to supply to others".

Judge Robert Altham remanded Hudson into custody following the verdicts, which were reached after nearly 14 hours of deliberation.

The court was told Hudson used different drugs, including insomnia medication zopiclone

He said the sentence for the nurse "plainly has to be a sentence of immediate custody".

"The only question is the length," he added.

'Inappropriate and unacceptable'

Speaking after the verdicts, specialist prosecutor Karen Tonge said the pair's actions were "callous and dangerous" and they had shown "utter contempt for patients in their care".

"Their role was to care for the patients on their ward, instead they conspired to ill-treat patients, sedating them for their own convenience and amusement or purely out of spite," she said.

"They grossly abused their position and the trust that patients and their families put in them.

"Now they must face the consequences of their actions."

Det Ch Insp Jill Johnston added that the pair had "treated the patients without care or compassion, laughing when they came to harm and drugging them to keep them quiet so that they could have an easy shift".

"The risks associated with these callous acts were obvious - inappropriately sedating elderly stroke patients could lead to added health complications and even death," she said.

"They were both fully aware of the risks, which makes their behaviour even harder to comprehend."

Apologising to Hudson's victims and their families, the chief executive of Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Trish Armstrong-Child said it was "very clear from the evidence... that inappropriate and unacceptable conduct and practices were taking place at the time".

She said the trust had made "significant improvements across a range of issues, including staffing, managing medicine and creating a more respectful culture".

"Part of these changes have been to actively encourage anyone who comes into contact with the trust in any way to speak up if they see or hear anything that causes concern or they are not comfortable with in any way", she added.

Hudson, of Coriander Close, Blackpool, and Wilmot, of Bowland Crescent, Blackpool, will be sentenced on 13 and 14 December.

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