Two nurses jailed for neglect after faking patients' blood glucose test results
Cardiff Crown Court heard that patients could have been harmed by the faking of test results
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Your support makes all the difference.Two nurses have been jailed for wilful neglect of patients after they were found to have faked the results of blood glucose tests that they failed to carry out.
Lauro Bertulano, 46, and Rebecca Jones, 31, were jailed for four and eight months respectively for their neglect of patients at the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend in Wales.
Another nurse, 42-year-old Natalie Jones, was given a community order for the same offence.
Earlier in their trials, they had pleaded guilty to multiple charges.
They failed on a number of occasions to check patients' blood glucose levels at least every two hours, faking the results in a "deception" that could have been potentially harmful to some patients, Cardiff Crown Court heard.
The faked results came to light after discrepancies between blood glucose levels noted on patients' charts and readings on a glucose meter used by Rebecca Jones were noticed.
Jones was suspended, and a full investigation took place.
Overall, it was found that Rebecca Jones made 51 fake entries, Bertulano made 26 and Natalie Jones made four.
Sentencing the three, Judge Tom Crowther QC called their practice of faking results "a clear-eyed and calculated deception, the purpose of which was to make the defendants' working time easier."
"This was not a failure to do your job, it was a failure of compassion and humanity," he said.
Following an internal review, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board said no patients were harmed as a result of the nurses' actions, but said more work would be done to make sure it does not happen again.
Paul Robert, Chief Executive of the board, told the BBC that he was confident that the faking of results was not widespread at the hospital.
Nicholas Gareth Jones, defending Rebecca Jones, told the court she was under stress at work but could not explain her actions, while Bertulano's lawyer said his client was under pressure and most of his faked results were made during night shifts when only two nurses were on duty.
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