RVN suspended for six months after leaving dog unattended following surgery

A dog that died following emergency surgery was left unattended by a veterinary nurse for more than two hours, a disciplinary panel has heard.

Libby Morris, who was sacked by the practice over the case, has now been suspended from the register for six months following an RCVS committee hearing.

But, although she accepted her actions had amounted to disgraceful conduct, the panel said it accepted her actions had not caused the dog’s death.

Gastric torsion

The case relates to the care of a German shepherd named Rocky, who was admitted to the Filham Park Veterinary Clinic in Ivybridge, Devon, during the early hours of Christmas Day 2020.

He was found to have gastric dilatation and volvulus (GDV), and underwent successful emergency surgery that morning.

One of the vets who conducted the operation told the panel that, before leaving the surgery shortly after 11am, he had advised Miss Morris to check on Rocky every hour, phone him with any concerns and not to leave the dog unattended for more than 90 minutes.

Patient unattended

But the report said CCTV footage showed she left the practice at around 12:15pm, having recorded notes of Rocky’s condition, and did not return until around 4pm.

Those notes were recorded as having been taken at 2pm and indicated there had been no checks made at all for around three hours.

The operating vet had found Rocky to be “generally in a very bad way” when he returned to the practice at around 2:30pm. His condition worsened further and he died around four hours later.

Acted dishonestly

Miss Morris, who the committee heard had asked for the code to access the practice’s CCTV in the days following the case, was dismissed from her role the following month after a disciplinary hearing where she admitted the recorded observations were not contemporaneous and she had left the practice because of family pressure.

A subsequent appeal against her dismissal was rejected and the case was referred to the RCVS.

Miss Morris admitted most of the charges brought against her at the start of a five-day hearing, which took place in late March, while an allegation that she had acted dishonestly in relation to her entries into Rocky’s clinical records, which she denied, was found to be proved.

Mitigation

The committee said Miss Morris’ actions had breached four parts of the RCVS Code of Practice and a six-month suspension was necessary to meet the public interest.

But it also found she had made “significant efforts to mitigate her position” while awaiting the hearing and removal from the register would be an excessive sanction on those grounds.

The panel had earlier heard testimony from her present employer who said they had not had any reason to question her honesty.