Nurse guilty of unlawfully sedating patients at Blackpool Hospital

A nurse has been found guilty of unlawfully sedating patients on a hospital stroke unit.

Catherine Hudson, 54, has been convicted of three offences of ill-treatment in relation to vulnerable patients on a hospital stroke unit.
 
She needlessly drugged patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital with the full knowledge of the potentially life-threatening consequences of her actions.

The Band 5 staff nurse was also convicted of conspiring with assistant practitioner Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to sedate another patient.

Karen Tonge, Specialist Prosecutor for CPS North West’s Complex Casework Unit, said: “The callous and dangerous actions of Hudson and Wilmot are truly shocking. They showed utter contempt for patients in their care.

“Their role was to care for the patients on their ward. This included elderly and vulnerable patients who were seriously ill. Instead, they conspired to ill-treat them, sedating them for their own convenience and amusement or purely out of spite.

“Patients should be able to feel safe and secure in hospital and know those charged with their care will not do them deliberate harm. Their relatives and friends should feel confident that the needs of their loved ones are being looked after.

“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.”

The patients were not sedated for any medical reason, and it is believed their motivation was either for their own amusement or to make their shift easier.

They also mocked and laughed about the patients in messages uncovered by police.

Hudson and Wilmot have both since lost their jobs.

Between September 2013 and November 2018, the pair also conspired to steal drugs from the hospital where they worked. This included prescription only drugs which they took for their own self-medication or for the onward supply to others.

A police investigation began when a student nurse raised concerns around the treatment of patients on the stroke ward.

Hudson had suggested to the student that they should give a patient zopiclone, a sedative, after being told the patient had been awake overnight.

She stated that if the patient came to harm as a result, she would not be caught out as nobody would investigate the cause of death.
 
Zopiclone is a Class C controlled drug, and its use must be closely monitored. It can place patients with underlying conditions at greater risk.

When officers investigated Hudson’s social media accounts and phone messages, it became clear she had conspired with others to sedate patients for her own benefit or amusement.

The investigation led to some of these patients being identified. Their relatives describe the patients as being uncharacteristically sleepy and unrousable.

In some instances, patients were displaying challenging behaviour because of their conditions. Hudson would mock them and brag to her colleagues that she had sedated them to “within an inch of their lives”.

The messages showed Wilmot encouraging Hudson to sedate an 80-year-old woman.

Hudson had similar conversations with other colleagues, bragging to one of them that she had sedated a patient and saying they needed “putting to sleep” and to be “sedated to hell”, “making for a nice day”.

Hudson stole omeprazole, a medication for heartburn and indigestion, mebeverine, a medication for stomach cramps, and she conspired with others to steal zopiclone, a sedative medication.

Hudson and Wilmot also conspired to steal amoxicillin, metronidazole and trimethoprim, all antibiotic medications.

Following the start of the investigation, Hudson tried to cover her tracks by disposing of evidence including medication by flushing it down the toilet.

The CPS worked with Lancashire police on this highly complex investigation, piecing together phone evidence, social media messages, eyewitness testimony and medical and forensic evidence to build a compelling case.

Both defendants admitted some of the charges but denied others. Following a four-week trial at Preston Crown Court they were found guilty of six of the remaining nine charges.

They will be sentenced on 13 and 14 December 2023.