A NURSE who told a colleague she was ‘not breaking her back’ to help a mentally-ill patient at an East Lancashire unit has been suspended for eight months.

Elizabeth Hutton also informed a fellow nurse ‘if you want to break yours that is up to you’, a conduct and competence hearing was told.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council heard Hutton, working on Ribble Ward at Pendleview, the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust unit on the former Queen’s Park Hospital site in Blackburn, failed to inform a charge nurse or doctor about the fall.

She was looking after a woman with a learning disability and a schizo-affective disorder when the incident occurred in November 2014.

Hutton admitted, at the London hearing, that she had left her on the floor, not giving her a blanket or carried out a risk assessment, or recorded observations, as well as making the comments.

Neil Jeffs, for the NMC, said that the patient had physical health concerns, which limited her mobility, communication and speech, and needed assistance with personal hygiene.

The woman, referred to only as Patient A, was being taken to the bathroom by Hutton and the second nurse when she fell, the hearing was told.

She did not have the mental capacity to decide whether she should remain on the floor or not, added Mr Jeffs.

“Patient A was thus left cold and on the floor through the night, as a window in her room was left open. When found in the morning, her skin was cold to the touch,” he said.

Hutton was not present or represented at the hearing but previously her legal team had submitted a statement in which she said she was “sincerely sorry for the unnecessary harm and distress that Patient A suffered.”

Hearing chairman David Boden said: “The panel considered that Patient A, having lacked capacity and the ability to communicate her needs, was particularly vulnerable and was put at real risk of significant harm.

“These include potentially untreated internal injuries and the risk of developing hypothermia and pressure ulcers. The panel considered the public would be shocked by Miss Hutton’s neglect of Patient A.”

Hutton’s suspension follows a similar hearing last October for the second nurse involved, where she was banned from practising for six months.