A CARE home nurse who was caught on a covert camera “drag lifting” an elderly woman with dementia from the toilet to her bed has been struck off.

Mamello Patience Herring was caught by the hidden camera, which had been installed by the victim’s family amid concerns about the care she was receiving at Claremount House Care Home in Halifax.

As well as having the dementia, the elderly lady also suffered from psychosis and was partially blind.

A misconduct panel heard the footage, taken on November 30, 2018 and which can be viewed below, showed Herring and a care assistant drag the lady across the floor of the bedroom, with her underwear down around her legs.

They were then caught lifting her by her arms onto the bed, with the lady’s distress evident on the footage audio.

Her son found her the next day in urine-soaked clothing.

Herring pleaded guilty to a charge of ill treatment/wilful neglect by a care worker and last January, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court, to an 18-month community order, along with 250 hours of unpaid work.

Following a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) misconduct hearing this week, she was struck off.

The panel heard the elderly lady had been in the home for some months and was physically frail with reduced mobility.

She required a walking frame to move to and from her bathroom and the assistance of two members of staff and required “careful and calm explanations” when interventions were taking place.

After the footage emerged, Herring was suspended from duty while an investigation was carried out and was then charged with a criminal offence.

She initially entered a plea of not guilty but admitted the offence ahead of trial.

Passing sentence, the judge told her: “To drag a lady as vulnerable as [Resident A] from the toilet, as you did, with her knickers around her ankles, and then to physically manhandle her up and onto and then up the length of her bed while she was moaning and crying in distress is a gross failure by both of you to care for this lady on that night.

“You left her in that position, laid on her bed, crying out that she wanted the toilet, and her son found her the next day in her own urine soaked clothing, and he had already suspected that the care she was receiving was not all that it should have been, and had installed a secret camera in that room to record just this kind of incident which he suspected may be occurring, and had he not done so you would have got away with it on this occasion, and quite probably on other occasions, because it is hard to believe that this was just a one off having watched the footage as I have.”

The panel heard her actions caused “distress and unwarranted” harm to the vulnerable lady, who was treated by Herring “without respect and with a disregard for her dignity”.

Herring had previously been referred to the NMC following an incident in September 2013 where it was found she had hoisted a patient from the floor to their bed after a fall and had then failed to call emergency services, check on the patient or document what happened

She did not appear at the latest hearing, but the panel heard she describes her actions which led to the conviction as “entirely unacceptable and reprehensible”.

She told the panel she was “working in a demanding role, working long hours and was exhausted” and her actions were not “wilful or deliberate but were motivated by her awareness of more pressing tasks and that she is deeply ashamed of herself”.

The panel concluded that “nothing short” of a striking off order would be sufficient.

Her actions were “significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse and are fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register”.