A Glasgow carer has been struck off after he was found to have lied about a fall that broke a vulnerable service user’s shoulder.
Patrick Mharapara has been removed from the register after the Scottish Social Services Council found his actions to be incredibly ‘dishonest’ and ‘serious’.
While employed as a support worker at Living Ambitions Limited, Glasgow and South East, on August 30 2022, Mharapara failed to report that the individual he was providing care for suffered a fall – he also lied about it to a colleague when questioned on more than one occasion and was found to have instead “improperly” moved the vulnerable service-user following the incident.
The fall was not appropriately disclosed and Mharapara – who prior to the incident was described as a “quiet man with a quiet nature” – said the boy hurt his wrist after he had slid off a shower chair. He was later taken to hospital and was reportedly examined where medics found nothing wrong with his wrist.
The service user – who is autistic, non-verbal and a wheelchair user – was taken back to hospital days later where he was found to have fractured his shoulder in two places. Proper treatment was delayed due to Mharapara’s inaccurate and misleading A&I Form, it was only discovered after the boy pointed to his shoulder and bruising was found on his upper arm.
Despite the former carer being aware that the A&I form he submitted was false, the SSSC claim he took “no effective steps” to correct the misleading information and say he “abused trust” and is yet to apologise or show any insight for his actions.
When the vulnerable service user returned from having his shoulder fracture treated, he required a period of physiotherapy and was described as withdrawn and would retreat to his bedroom for a number of later weeks.
The SSSC report reads: “You were in a position of trust which you abused by improperly moving AA and by failing to report what had happened at the time and for several days after AA fell. AA was in receipt of 2:1 support, meaning that the relationship you had was of a close and trusting nature. You failed toad here to the relevant parts of the code by acting in this manner.
“You were aware that the A&I form you submitted was false and did not correct it during the time you were with AA at hospital, nor when you travelled back home nor for several days afterwards. You did not contact your management to disclose what you had done and claimed that you expected to be contacted to give your version of events when you would have given a correct account. By failing to take steps to contact your management, and specifically ZZ, who you had been able to phone in the immediate aftermath of AA’s fall, you continued to conceal your wrong doing up to the time you made a disclosure to WW. This is considered to be an aggravating factor.”
The decision to remove Patrick Mharapara was decided after the panel took into account the need to protect public interest.
The SSSC said the removal was the only appropriate action with the date of effect being January 7, 2025.
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