Nurse struck off for failing to report scalding patient

Report highlights 'abhorrent'treatment of vulnerable person

- CHRIS MARZELLA, HARRY STEDMAN PA

A West Dunbartonshire nurse has been struck off after he failed to report scalding a patient with boiling water resulting in the agonising injury remaining undiscovered for four years.

According to a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel judgment, Mark Gavienas, of West Dunbartonshire, failed to provide adequate care to the patient, including by giving them the wrong amount of food and leaving them unattended in a bath, between 2016 and 2020, according to a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) tribunal panel judgment held late last month.

Gavienas worked for the ScotNursing agency, which provides 24-hour nursing services to patients at home, on behalf of the West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (West Dunbartonshire HSCP) at the time of the incidents.

He has been a registered nurse since 2004.

In one incident from March 2016, the patient suffered extensive burns to their side and arm from spilled hot water under Gavienas's care, the panel said.

Despite this, Gavienas never reported it to ScotNursing. The agency only became aware in 2020.