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Nurse stuffs tape roll in dementia patient's mouth

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Nurse stuffs tape roll in dementia patient's mouth

An assistant nurse has been reported after forcing a roll of tape into the mouth of a patient with dementia at a Carema-run nursing home in southern Sweden.

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“We’re taking this very seriously and have filed a Lex-Sarah report,” said the head of the home to the local Smålandsposten newspaper.

The incident occurred at an elderly care home in Växjö, southern Sweden, and was reported by one of the nurse’s colleagues last week.

According to the paper, the nurse forced the tape roll into the mouth of the dementia-sufferer when attempts to subdue the patient’s aggressiveness failed.

Carema Care, the nursing home operator in charge of the facility, is currently investigating the incident.

“When such an incident occurs we get right to the bottom of it. There’s not a stone left unturned. It’s not just about the incident but also why it happened, how it could have happened, and what we need to fix so it won’t happen again,” said Carema Care spokesperson Susanne Bodin Eklöf to the paper.

“It’s quite a long chain of events that need to be thoroughly investigated to prevent mistakes from happening again.”

The complaint was filed according to Sweden's Lex-Sarah laws, which oblige staff in the care industry to report instances of patient mistreatment to social services.

Carema Care was hit by a series of scandals last year, when a slew of incidents ranging from unchanged diapers to poor working environments saw patients suffering due to cost-cutting.

The scandals led to raised concerns at the time for tightened quality control of elderly homes as well as an ongoing debate about the role and responsibilities of private companies operating in the care sector.

The nurse has since been fired.

“The person in question has engaged in conduct which should never occur and the other workers have been informed of the dismissal,” wrote Carema Care in a statement on Wednesday, according to the TT news agency

TT/The Local/og

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