Suspended health professional mistreated “especially vulnerable patients” and filmed this “mistreatment”. The board of directors of the Abrantes hospital “says it is deeply shocked and dismayed by the content of the footage”
The Board of Directors (CA) of the Médio Tejo Local Health Unit (ULS) announced this evening the suspension and criminal prosecution of a nurse from the Abrantes hospital for “non-consensual filming of especially vulnerable patients” with “associated mistreatment”.
In a statement, the ULS Médio Tejo, based in Torres Novas (Santarém), said today that on Tuesday it had received “an anonymous complaint, by email, containing several files containing illegal video footage, without the consent or knowledge of the users, who are unaware that they are being captured”.
In the footage, he says, “absolutely reprehensible acts are perpetrated on especially vulnerable patients, which call into question the respect and dignity of the human person and the deontology inherent in the noble mission of providing health care”.
In this sense, says the ULS, “the priority in the last 24 hours has been to identify the author of the images, instruct the disciplinary procedure and suspension, and instruct the entire criminal process with the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP)” with the due “reporting to the judicial authorities of illicit filming with acts perpetrated on vulnerable users by a health professional from the ULS Médio Tejo”.
In the same statement, the CA said it was “deeply shocked and dismayed by the content of the footage” which, according to what it said it had been able to “ascertain through careful viewing, was taken at least three years ago in various workplaces and inpatient wards at the Abrantes Hospital Unit”.
According to the same note, the “viewing of the images received, with the institution’s managers, also made it possible to identify at least one nurse from the Abrantes Hospital Unit of the ULS Médio Tejo associated with these criminal acts”.
CA also states that “as soon as these anonymous reports were received, at around 9:16 pm on Wednesday, April 10, it held an emergency meeting that same evening” and took measures, including the “immediate suspension of the professional identified in the footage from the institution”.
In addition to the suspension of the employee, it was decided to “open disciplinary proceedings against the identified professional with a view to dismissal, informing the Order of Nurses of the opening of these proceedings”, to “hand over all the material received to the Public Prosecutor’s Office” and to “file a complaint with the competent judicial authorities” with the provision of “full cooperation with the authorities in the investigation” of the case.
Noting that the institution’s “mission is to ensure the safety and well-being of its users”, the ULS “strongly condemns any form of abuse or negligence inflicted on those in its care”, and apologized to the users.
“A heartfelt apology is therefore due to the users and a word to the community served by the institution: the behavior shown by this professional in no way represents the work carried out by the institution’s health professionals,” the same note reads.
The CA of the ULS, he adds, is “actively working to identify the users who were victims of these absolutely unacceptable acts captured in the videos, and is also committed to ensuring all the necessary support for the victims and their families”.
Acknowledging the “seriousness” of the situation, the CA “reiterates its apology for the suffering caused,” and also indicated that, “despite the fact that the images, as far as we can ascertain, are about three years old, therefore before the current CA took office, it will act vigorously to apply the sanctions that must be taken, no matter who it hurts.
The CA of the ULS Médio Tejo concludes by stating that it is also “committed to ensuring that this type of situation never happens again, taking this case to the last consequences” and to “working on strengthening safety procedures and reinforcing the training of its health professionals”.
