Nurse with poor English put patient at risk

A NURSE who put patients at risk because of her ‘insufficient knowledge of English’ can carry on working. Romanian-born Rodica Olteanu, 34, struggled with a 999 call at Ty Gwynno nursing home in Pontypridd. Olteanu was unable to answer the call handler’s questions — and needed help from medically unqualified colleagues before confirming a patient’s life was at ‘immediate risk’. The patient was later successfully treated. Olteanu was supposed to do an English test but she refused, claiming she could not get time off a new job. Concerns where again raised when she worked at the University Hospital of North Midlands Trust in Stoke. A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel sitting in Cardiff, also heard Olteanu did not accept her English was below standard, saying that until the 999 call ‘no one had any complaints’. David Newman, who chaired the panel, said Olteanu’s lack of English ‘could place the public at risk of harm’, but suspending her registration would be ‘disproportionate’