Nurses Sacked For Using Violent Patient To Move House

Feb 17 2008 By Lesley Roberts

Exclusive Nurse Sacked For Using Violent Patient To Move House Fights For Career

THREE nurses have been sacked from a psychiatric hospital after using two mental patients to help with a house move.

Violent ex-heroin addict Mark Biggley, 30, and a 22-year-old fellow patient moved packing boxes for ward manager Jo Dickman after she split from her husband.

When bosses at Ailsa Hospital, near Ayr, found out, charge nurse Dickman and two colleagues were dismissed, accused of putting public safety at risk.

But the staff members insist they were victims of a witch-hunt to cover up their bosses' failure.

They claim 'restricted' patients were regularly allowed out in the community, unaccompanied.

Mum-of-three Dickman, 44, said: "I made a bad decision and I bitterly regret it. I also feel guilty about gettingmy colleagues involved.

"But at no point did I think I was doing anything wrong.

"The patients concerned were often allowed out on their own. It was part of their rehabilitation.

"They had 24-hour passes and could do what ever they wanted during that time unsupervised - go shopping, go into town, stay at pre-arranged addresses.

"I didn't see how I was endangering anyone."

Dick man, from Kilmarnock, had been off work with stress and depression at the time.

She refuses to name the two patients but the Sunday Mail have discovered violent offender Biggley was one of them.

She added: "The lads were always saying they were bored in the wards.

"I thought this might be a good thing for them to do. They were supervised the whole time."

And the house flit incident passed without comment for six weeks - until Biggley and his pal absconded from Ailsa for seven days in May 2006.

Tattooed Biggley, who has convictions for violence, had gone missing from the same secure psychiatric unit twice before.

The escape bid humiliated Ailsa hospital chiefs and MSPs demanded a full inquiry.

Dickman said: "They were determined that heads would roll.

I was still off work sick when the patients went missing.

"But someone said I had used them to help me move house weeks earlier and that was a good enough explanation for the bosses.

"I was told I had used these patients for my own gain.

"That's totally untrue. The boys and my colleagues helped me move some boxes then I took them all for a pub lunch to say thank you. That's it."

Dickman was suspended from her £30,000-a-year post for 10 months, along with James Murphy and auxilliary Senga Robertson.

They were sacked last year.Two members of the management team were also disciplined.

Dickman is now working in a nursing home but is waiting for a ruling from the Nursing and Midwifery Council on whether she will struck off, ending her 14-year career.

Biggley went on to abscond from Ailsa for a fourth time, taking a female patient with him.

He was accused of feeding her heroin and sexually assaulting her before his recapture.

He is now believed to be in Carstairs preparing for freedom after mounting a legal bid for release.

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