A CARE worker has been struck off for repeatedly assaulting a resident at a Scottish nursing home.
Watchdogs slammed Gillian Hannah for showing “very limited insight” into her “deliberate” behaviour, the Greenock Telegraph reported.
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) said there would be an “ongoing public protection risk” if Hannah’s name were to remain on the country’s register of social care workers.
Hannah, who had been working in the care sector for 20 years at the time of the incident, was employed as a senior care assistant at Newark Care Home in Port Glasgow when she attacked the vulnerable man last year.
A report of an SSSC disciplinary hearing reveals that Hannah grabbed the resident – referred to in the document only as AA – on the shoulder and spun him around, or that she caused the man to spin around as a result of hitting him.
She also hit the man on the body more than once.
The SSSC report stated: “Social services workers are expected to be reliable and dependable and work in a safe, lawful and effective way.
"Social service workers must not abuse or harm people who use services, or put others at unnecessary risk of harm.
“You have spun a service user around, or caused them to spin around, and hit the service user on the body more than once.
"You caused the service user distress as a result of your actions and caused physical harm.
"You have acted in a manner that is considered incompatible with expected standards of the profession."
The report said there was “an abuse of trust” in that “you failed to provide an acceptable standard of care to a vulnerable service user and harmed them”.
It added: “The behaviour is considered deliberate. You have shown very limited insight into your behaviour and there are no reassurances that there would be no risk of repetition.
“There is an ongoing public protection risk, and a reasonable person in possession of all the information would consider the reputation of the professions to be damaged if you were able to practise without restriction.”
In Hannah’s favour, the report said that she had been registered with the SSSC since 2012 and had worked in care since 2003, and that her behaviour had not previously come to the watchdog’s attention.
But the watchdog said that a warning would not be “sufficient in marking the seriousness of the behaviour, nor assist in minimising public protection risks”.
The report added: "The SSSC considers a removal order is the most appropriate sanction as it is both necessary and justified in the public interest and to maintain the continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession and the SSSC as the regulator of the profession."
The order comes into effect on Wednesday, September 18.
The Anavo Group, which owns the care home, declined to comment.
