A FORMER care home manager who allowed staff to tilt mattresses to prevent elderly residents getting out of bed has been struck off following the death of a resident.

Pamela Tavendale was employed as manager of Mowat Court nursing home in Stonehaven when 89-year-old resident Gladys Burr died in February 2012.

Ms Burr, from Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, is said to have suffered 54 accidents in four months after moving to the home.

A panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council found Ms Tavendale had allowed care staff to "inappropriately restrain" her.

The NMC also said Ms Tavendale had failed to effectively deal with ulcers on Ms Burr's ankles and feet.

Investigators found that staff at Mowat Court had used pillows under the mattress to tilt it and prevent Ms Burr getting out of bed. The NMC found evidence that this may also have happened to other residents.

It also found she had allowed staff to remove emergency alarms from bedrooms and failed to ensure plans were in place to reduce the number of falls at the home.

The NMC panel was given several reasons for the removal of alarms including a fault with the system, impractical use by dementia patients and concerns over the safety of the pull-cord.

But the panel decided that any decision to remove emergency alarms should have been made on an individual basis.

It found: "Ms Tavendale had knowledge that staff at the Home had inappropriately restrained elderly and vulneraresidents by the inappropriate practice of using pillows placed under their mattresses to prevent the residents from getting out of bed.

"She did not take sufficient steps to address this poor practice and, in particular, she did not make any safeguarding referrals or report this practice to senior management.

"In addition, she was aware that some residents’ call bells had been removed from their rooms or were otherwise non-operational."

The inquiry found that the former manager had shown "no remorse" for her actions.

It concluded: "The panel considered that Ms Tavendale’s ongoing lack of engagement with her regulator, her persistent lack of insight and her repeated failure to provide any evidence of remediation of her failings is now fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register."