A NURSE faces charges he made sectarian and anti-English remarks to colleagues, groped a female co-worker, and made suggestive comments about a patient.
Derek James Steel, who worked at Rawyards House Care Home (corr) in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, is also said to have told another female colleague she “must not be getting enough sex at home”.
He is further charged with telling another colleague to “f*** off back to England”.
The nurse faces nine charges of misconduct at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing due to start next month.
He could be struck off if it is found he has committed serious misconduct.
According to an NMC report published on their website, an earlier investigating committee hearing was told Mr Steel had an “apparent unblemished career”.
He made some “partial admissions” to making comments but denied the more serious charges, the report stated.
The allegations relate to two female colleagues – referred to only as colleague A and colleague B – and are alleged to have happened on “unknown dates” before July 2010.
Mr Steel faces a charge he “put [his] hand down the back of colleague A’s trousers and touched her bottom”.
He is also said to have “pulled the bra strap of colleague B” and told the same woman she “must not be getting enough sex at home” or words to that effect.
Other charges say he made inappropriate comments about English people and Catholics to colleague B.
The nurse is further charged with making derogatory comments to colleague A, including “English twit” and “F*** off back to England”.
The NMC also says he did not cover a female patient with a towel when giving her a bed bath.
He is also alleged to have said “I do not mix business with pleasure” or words to that effect when required to insert a catheter into a female patient.
Rawyards House care home is a nursing home which looks after 97 elderly residents, some with dementia and Alzheimers.
At the hearing of the NMC’s Investigation Committee in August last year, Mr Steel was suspended for 18 months while a full investigation was carried out.
The hearing was told Mr Steel was at this point working as a bank nurse in several hospitals, but had not told his new employed about the allegations.
The committee published a document saying: “It is alleged that he abused his position as a staff nurse and allegedly intimidated and bullied junior staff.”
The report continued: “The panel took into account the registrant’s apparent unblemished career and heard that he had been working as a Bank Nurse for a group of three NHS Hospitals across a range of medical and surgical wards.
“However this employer was not aware of the allegations which had been made against him; and this is in fact a breach of the NMC code in itself.”
The Investigating Committee panel said they took account of the “devastating hardship” Mr Steel would suffer if he was suspended, but said suspension was the only action they could take.
