A CARE home nurse who put elderly people at risk of harm due to his bad English has been struck off the medical register.

Concerns were raised over Nihad Basha’s poor grasp of English and his medication administration practice when he worked for Highcliffe Nursing Home in 2014, which provides care for residents with dementia who are ‘highly dependent on nursing staff,’ a tribunal heard.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council investigation was launched but Mr Basha failed to take an International English Language Testing System assessment branded as ‘a flagrant disregard of his regulator.’

A fitness to practise hearing in London was told he entered a medical assessment into the wrong resident’s file, his handovers were ‘poor’, he was not able to understand telephone queries ‘due to his poor spoken English’, he misread and could not correctly pronounce medication that he administered and residents found it difficult to understand him.

As previously reported, the home in Highcliffe was put into special measures in 2015 after a report by the Care Quality Commission showed residents had been left in pain due to neglect by staff. That review has now ended after two years of ‘significant improvements.’

The panel found Mr Basha’s fitness to practise is ‘currently impaired’ adding they saw no evidence of Mr Basha’s remorse on how his misconduct could impact on residents, colleagues, the nursing profession as a whole and the NMC.

The committee said: “The panel considered that Mr Basha’s language impairment was a single, yet persistent, incident of concern. The panel also considered that Mr Basha’s actions, resulting from his minimal engagement with the NMC, provided evidence of deep-seated attitudinal problems with his regulator. The aggravating factors that the panel took into account were, in particular, the risk of harm to residents and the lack of insight by Mr Basha into his failings.

“The misconduct, as highlighted by the facts found proved, was a significant departure from the standards expected of a registered nurse.”

It added: “The panel was of the view that the findings in this particular case demonstrate that Mr Basha’s actions were serious and to allow him to continue practising would undermine public confidence in the profession and in the NMC as a regulatory body.”