{"id":364476,"date":"2026-03-25T14:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364476\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:15:15","slug":"nurse-manager-failed-to-call-ambulance-for-dementia-patient-who-drank-cleaning-fluid-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364476\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurse manager failed to call ambulance for dementia patient who drank cleaning fluid \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A clinical nurse manager who failed to call an ambulance for a dementia<\/a> patient who drank cleaning fluid has been suspended from the nurse\u2019s register for nine months by the High Court<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ann Marie Ryan, a registered psychiatric nurse with an address at Milford, Co Donegal<\/a>, is to remain suspended until she has successfully completed three courses including dealing with emergencies, and ethics and leadership in nursing.<\/p>\n

High Court president Judge David Barniville, confirming the decision of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland<\/a> following an inquiry by its fitness-to-practise committee, said there was no reason why it should not be confirmed.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that Ryan, in an email to solicitors for the board in November last year, indicated she was not seeking to re-register as a nurse in 2026, and claimed the facts were incorrect.<\/p>\n

The inquiry by the fitness-to-practise committee found that two allegations were proven against Ryan, and it amounted to poor professional performance and noncompliance with a code of professional conduct.<\/p>\n

They related to an incident at a psychiatric unit in the east of the country where, at the time in March 2021, Ryan was a clinical nurse manager and the nurse in charge.<\/p>\n

The allegations included that after being notified by a staff nurse of a medical emergency in relation to the patient who had ingested a cleaning fluid, Ryan failed to act in a timely manner and did not call an ambulance, and instructed nursing staff who were monitoring the patient not to call an ambulance.<\/p>\n

The second allegation which was found to be proven was that Ryan had instructed a staff nurse to continue giving the patient water and observe her despite the fact that the staff nurse had advised that the patient needed to be taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

The inquiry was held over three days in February last year. Evidence was heard that a doctor who happened to be on site at the unit was asked by Ryan to attend the woman and he advised an ambulance be called.<\/p>\n

A nurse gave evidence that an ambulance was called but the patient died days later in hospital.<\/p>\n

Ryan, who is now a director of education, training and professional development at a large psychiatric hospital in Dubai<\/a>, chose not to attend the inquiry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A clinical nurse manager who failed to call an ambulance for a dementia patient who drank cleaning fluid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2926,1485,200,103,397,396,73,61,60,10911],"class_list":["post-364476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-dementia","tag-donegal","tag-dubai","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nursing-and-midwifery-board-of-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}