TWO colleagues of a former Director of Nursing at risk of being struck off gave evidence yesterday at a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing.

Nurse Christine Hayes is charged with failing to act to ensure an adequate standard of nursing care was provided at the now-closed Brithdir Care Home in Caerphilly county.

The care home was shut down in 2006 after multiple investigations by the Protection for Vulnerable Adults and a £11.6 million police investigation into homes in Gwent.

Mrs Hayes, 62, was employed at Caerphilly teaching Local Health Board from April 2003 to 2006, and was in charge of allowing funded nursing placements at the care home.

Yesterday two ex-colleagues of Mrs Hayes gave evidence to a panel of the NMC’s Conduct and Competence Committee.

Geraint Morgan, the Senior Nurse for Commissioning Services at the health board, said during a period of secondment he took between 2004 and 2005, the risk to residents worsened.

The nurse, who was responsible to Mrs Hayes, said: “Residents were certainly at risk.”

Mr Morgan told the hearing how he would have discussed the ongoing concerns with Mrs Hayes to consider action plans and safeguards for residents.

Also appearing to the panel was Donna Francis, a senior nurse at the local health board who was brought in to cover Mr Morgan while he was on secondment.

She said she had regular meetings with Mrs Hayes, both formal and informal, to discuss concerns relating to Brithdir, which provided care for up to 40 residents including those with dementia, mental infirmity and learning difficulties.

Mrs Francis told the panel how she visited the nursing home a number of times and drew up reports which were then made available to Mrs Hayes.

After one of her visits, which was auditing assessments nurses at the home, she discovered in some cases staff were not aware their residents had pressure sores.

She said: “I felt that the standard was very poor and that it could have been very easily rectified if you had properly trained nurses dealing with the issues."

Following concerns over care, an embargo was put on the care home in 2004 meaning no more residents could be admitted to the home, but Mrs Hayes later signed a letter allowing it to be lifted.

The hearing is adjourned until Tuesday, November 11, when Alasdair Henderson, representing Mrs Hayes, will open his case.