Stroke unit nurse jailed over ill-treatment of patients for ‘easy life’
A nurse who drugged patients on a hospital stroke unit for an “easy life” and to “exercise contemptuous power” has been jailed for seven years and two months.
Catherine Hudson, 54, illegally sedated two patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and conspired with junior colleague Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to sedate a third.
Police were alerted by hospital chiefs in November 2018 after a student nurse on a work placement said Hudson suggested administering unprescribed zopiclone, a sleeping pill, to elderly patient Aileen Scott.
The whistleblower was further troubled when Hudson commented: “Well, she’s got a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) in place so she wouldn’t be opened up if she died or like if it came to any harm.”
She was said to be “shocked”
