An NHS nurse and a care assistant threatened to kill a patient on a hospital stroke unit and bragged about sedating another ‘within an inch of her life’, appalling WhatsApp messages reveal.
Catherine Hudson, 54, and Charlotte Wilmot, 48, have today been found guilty of drugging ‘troublemaker’ patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital for their ‘own amusement’ and an ‘easy life’. The pair are said to have targeted patients if they disliked them or their relatives.
Messages between the pair – which were uncovered after a probe was launched into alleged misconduct – showed how ‘callous and dangerous’ Hudson wrote to her friend that she was going to ‘kill bed 5’ and planned to give one patient ‘the best sleep she ever had’.
In another message to a colleague, Hudson wrote: ‘What a lovely day I have had in blue bay today. Sedated all the troublemakers lol xxx.’
In May 2016, in response to Hudson suggesting the sedation of a patient, Wilmot replied: ‘Ha ha yeah sedation we love it.’
The friends were today warned that they face jail for their crimes. Neither nurse has ever been accused of causing any deaths, although patients on their ward were ‘profoundly unwell’.
Today Hudson, 54, was convicted of drugging two patients during work shifts between February 2017 and November 2018. She was cleared of ill-treating two other patients.
Jurors at Preston Crown Court also convicted her of conspiring with a junior colleague, Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to administer a sedative to a third patient.
Prosecutors said messages between Hudson, an experienced Band 5 registered nurse, and Wilmot a Band 4 assistant practitioner, revealed a ‘culture of abuse’ – with patients drugged for their ‘own amusement’.
In a text conversation from early February 2017, the pair appeared to be bragging about sedating patients in the stroke ward.
Hudson, in a message to Wilmot, claimed she was going to ‘kill’ the patient in bed five. Wilmot, who indicated she was laughing, replied: ‘well tonight sedate him to high heaven’.
‘Already in my head to give him double !! Xxx,’ Hudson answered.
