Nurse Banned From Dental Surgery Following Claims of Negligence and Hygiene Failings

A dental nurse has been banned from working for at least 12 months after the General Dental Council found that she had put patients at risk of harm. Mrs Sally Hague worked alongside Desmond D’Mello – the dentist who sparked “the biggest recall in NHS history“, following alleged hygiene failings at a practice in Nottinghamshire.

If you feel that you have experienced harm resulting from the actions of a negligent dentist you could be entitled to compensation. Contact our experienced medical and dental negligence solicitors for free initial advice. We offer a No-Win No-Fee Agreement so there is no financial risk involved if you are not successful. To discuss your case or to make an appointment please contact us on 01895 207835 or 01895 207295. Alternatively, please email us at PI@ibblaw.co.uk or complete our online form.

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22,000 dental patients at risk of blood-borne viruses

The General Dental Council has suspended dental nurse Mrs Sally Hague for a period of at least 12 months, following a professional conduct hearing into alleged hygiene failings at a Nottinghamshire Practice.

Mrs Hague worked alongside Desmond D’Mello at Daybrook Dental Practice in Nottinghamshire, where around 22,000 former patients of the surgery were thought to be at risk of having contracted blood-borne viruses, after poor hygiene procedures were employed. Mr D’Mello was suspended soon after the failings at the practice were exposed, with an associate dentist covertly filming him and making the footage public in June 2014. While his suspension is set to continue until February 2016, Mr D’Mello is understood to be seeking voluntary “erasure” from the General Dental Council register – which will prevent him from ever treating patients again.

With the failings at the practice described as “serious”, and the cross infection risks described as “wide-ranging, persistent” and “willful”, Mr D’Mello is understood to have re-used dirty gloves and failed to decontaminate dental instruments. He allegedly failed to wipe down surfaces between patients and placed dirty instruments on patient record cards, before later reusing them. The secretly filmed footage also shows Mr D’Mello seeing around 50 patients in a five-hour period – something the General Dental Council described as an “unacceptably high workload”.

Following the “biggest patient recall in NHS history”, the conduct of others at the practice was also called into question, with a series of allegations made towards Mrs Hague.

Mrs Hague did not attend the hearing into her conduct, but admitted 20 charges relating to her own hygiene standards, as well as also failing to raise concerns about Mr D’Mello. The charges against her included failing to wash her hands at necessary times, re-using single-use equipment – including gloves, bibs and brushes, and re-using equipment, such as extraction forceps, that had not been appropriately decontaminated. She was also found to have brushed and flossed her own teeth in a sink reserved for washing hands.

In a letter to the General Dental Council, Mrs Hague said: “I feel I have let myself down as a dental nurse as well as my patients, although I would never intentionally do anything to put their health at risk.”

How to make a compensation claim for negligence by a dentist or dental nurse

You are entitled to expect a certain standard of treatment from those providing medical assistance to you. If this treatment falls below standard you may be entitled to recover the cost of the private medical treatment needed to correct the failings on the part of those originally treating you. Our goal at IBB Solicitors is to obtain justice for victims of the negligence by others, by securing compensation that reflects their pain and suffering, as well as related financial losses including loss of earnings, treatment costs and specialist care costs.

If you want to enquire about making a hospital, dentist or GP negligence claim, please contact one of our medical negligence solicitors on 01895 207835 or 01895 207295. Alternatively, please email us at PI@ibblaw.co.uk or complete our online form.

CONTACT OUR NO-WIN dental negligence SOLICITORS FOR A FREE CONSULTATION