Hospital worker in abuse accusations
A healthcare assistant at Stafford Hospital dragged a 73-year-old patient around by the collar of his pyjamas and called him an "animal", a hearing was told yesterday.
It is alleged Bonka Kostova abused the patient while working a night shift at the hospital. When nurses intervened she bombarded him with verbal abuse, telling him "you are no longer a human being but an animal", the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard. Bulgarian-born Kostova was caring for Patient A while a colleague was on a break in 2010.
The NMC heard how the patient, who suffered from Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's, was receiving treatment for kidney stones. The hearing was told he had been placed in a wheelchair next to the nurse's station after he was found wandering the ward.
"At one point he went to get up and staff nurse Jane Wilkinson saw the registrant push him back down into his wheelchair," said Rebecca Wood, for the NMC. "The nurse took him to the toilet and then went to answer a call bell.
"When she returned she witnessed the registrant pull him from the toilet by the collar of his pyjama top.Due to the aggression shown and the fact Patient A had no dignity, staff nurse Wilkinson intervened at that point.
Kostova allegedely made reference to him being an animal and said she hated having to work with people like him." Kostova, whose last registered address was in Staffordshire and worked in Stafford between April 2009 and September 2010, has not formally admitted or denied the charges.
