Ayr care workers warned after injured resident was lifted from floor without medical help

Two social care workers based in Ayr have been given professional warnings after an investigation found that an injured resident was manually lifted from the floor and returned to bed without medical help being sought.

Caitlyn McKenzie received a 24-month warning from the Scottish Social Services Council, while Lauren Paterson was given a 12-month warning. The warnings took effect on September 19 after the watchdog found both women's fitness to practise was impaired.

McKenzie and Paterson were employed as mobile alarm attendants for South Ayrshire Council's Integrated Reablement Service. They attended the home of a resident identified in the investigation as AA after being told by an emergency response team that the person had fallen.

Resident was lifted despite reporting pain

The incident happened in March 2024. The investigation found that the workers did not take an ELK lifting cushion with them and manually lifted AA from the floor back into bed. They also failed to seek medical attention after AA said they were in pain.

AA was later admitted to hospital and found to have fractured ribs and a fractured spine. The investigation did not allege that either injury was caused by the workers, but found that they failed to take appropriate steps to obtain prompt medical assistance and put the resident at risk of further harm.

You manually lifted a client who had fallen from their bed onto the floor, despite them indicating to you that they were in pain.

Your actions were contrary to your employer’s policy on attending falls and created a risk of further injury.

You failed to call an ambulance. Your actions were contrary to your employer’s policy on attending falls.

The SSSC said the actions may have prolonged the pain AA was experiencing.

Separate armchair incident involving vulnerable resident

The investigation also considered a separate incident on September 19 last year involving McKenzie and another colleague. An armchair leg broke while they attempted to lift it with another resident, identified as BB, still seated in it.

After the colleague, identified as YY, fell to the floor with BB still in the chair, McKenzie did not complete an incident report. The watchdog said the employer only learned about the broken chair and what happened after BB's family reported it.

The SSSC found that attempting to move the occupied armchair created an unnecessary risk of it becoming unstable, tipping over or collapsing. It said BB should first have been helped into another seat.

McKenzie, who had worked in the industry for 13 years, and Paterson, who had been employed in the service since 2018, were found to have shown limited insight into the seriousness of their actions and minimal remorse and reflection on their potential impact.

Training ordered after warnings

Both workers have been ordered to complete training covering a number of issues. The South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership said one of the staff members was no longer employed by the organisation.

The partnership said it became aware of the incident in March 2024 and carried out a full internal investigation. Relevant partners, including the SSSC and Care Inspectorate, were notified in line with its policies and procedures.

It said it had apologised to everyone affected and that learning from the investigation had been implemented in practice. The partnership added that it could not comment on individual cases but stressed that the safety of residents and security of service users were of the utmost importance.