Therapist 'raised concerns' about patients' finances at hospital

An occupational therapist (OT) who worked at Muckamore Abbey Hospital between 2012 and 2015 said she raised concerns over patients' finances during her time there.

An inquiry into abuse at the facility has been hearing from staff and former staff from the hospital.

Dr Shelley Crawford worked with patients with learning or physical disabilities.

She helped prepare them to resettle into their own homes in the community.

She said when she was first seconded to the hospital in 2012, along with a colleague, she was taken aback by the culture there.

Occupational therapy had not been a service Muckamore had offered for a long time. Dr Crawford said there had been no OTs at the hospital for 30 years.

She said she felt staff had a sceptical attitude towards resettlement, at least initially. They weren't confident that patients would be able to cope on their own or that they would have the support in the community to do so.

'Institutionalised'

Dr Crawford said her colleague had told her of two separate incidents she had witnessed which caused concern.

"She witnessed a gentleman being moved and handled in an incorrect way by a healthcare assistant," Dr Crawford told the inquiry on Tuesday.

"The patients' needs were not being cared for optimally.

"We discussed this and both reported it."

She said she and her colleague reported it to the ward manager, who said the member of staff involved would not be back on the ward.

The staff member and ward manager turned out to be related.

Dr Crawford said many of the staff at the facility were related: husband and wife, brother and sister, cousins. And some seemed "institutionalised", as they had never worked anywhere else, she told the inquiry.

'Banter'

Another incident involved witnessing another member of staff kicking a patient "up the backside" and using swear words.

When Dr Crawford and her colleague reported that incident, the manager said they did not understand "banter" and that staff members had different relationships with the patients.

"Our concerns were dismissed," she said.

Part of the role of the OT was to ensure patients' physical needs were being met. Dr Crawford said she believed some patients were in wheelchairs not appropriate for their needs.

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She told the inquiry of her concerns that patients spent long times in "comfort chairs" with belts which they paid for themselves.

She said if an assessment of their needs required a special chair, the health trust should have paid for the chair, not the patient.

She reported her concerns about misappropriation of patients' finances as she felt it bordered on financial abuse.

"I was deeply unhappy patients were purchasing their own chairs and they weren't appropriate for their needs," she said.

Dr Crawford added that not all her time at Muckamore was negative, and she recalled many good, supportive members of staff.

She said a small number of staff members seemed less committed to the patients.

Dr Crawford left the hospital in 2015, after a maternity leave.

"l did enjoy my time at Muckamore Abbey Hospital but left as I feared I would become institutionalised too," she added.

The inquiry continues.