Orchid View manager Nirmala Read struck off

The manager of a scandal-hit care home has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

A disciplinary hearing found Nirmala Read, who was in charge of the now-closed Orchid View care home in West Sussex, unfit to practise.

The NMC heard that she changed a dying resident's records and ordered documents to be shredded in an attempt to conceal an overdose of warfarin.

A total of seven allegations, external were heard in Mrs Read's absence.

She was given an interim suspension order for 18 months after the conduct and competence committee found against her on all seven counts.

An inquest in 2013 into 19 unexplained deaths at Orchid View, in Copthorne, found neglect contributed to five of them.

The West Sussex coroner said the home was riddled with "institutionalised abuse".

The home was owned and operated by Southern Cross Healthcare Group, which has since gone into administration.

It later reopened under a new name and management.

The NMC hearing heard how Mrs Read tried to cover up an overdose given to one of the 19 residents who died.

Jean Halfpenny, 77, who was referred to as Resident A, was about to go into hospital from the Copthorne care home in April 2010 when she was given an overdose of the blood-thinning drug warfarin.

Realising that the medical records showed what had happened, Mrs Read told a colleague: "You can't send her to hospital with these - we will be closed down."

Administrator Lisa Martin was told to shred the documents, which were then rewritten by Mrs Read.

Mrs Read also ordered Ms Martin to administer medication to another resident when she was not qualified to do so.