Senior nurse struck off for 'predatory' behaviour

A former head of nursing at a failing mental health hospital who inflicted "predatory behaviour" on several female colleagues has been struck off.

Rennie Paul Bartlette was the head of nursing at Huntercombe Hospital in Maidenhead between July 2021 and August 2022, when he was sacked for gross misconduct.

Bartlette was found to have made a comment about a woman's breasts while helping Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors as they assessed a care home in May 2023.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found he had deliberately withheld details of his dismissal from the CQC before it employed him as a nursing advisor.

Bartlette was found to have "intended to pursue a sexual relationship" with two junior colleagues, who felt "intimidated and harassed".

"You breached these colleagues' dignity, abused your position of trust and went beyond the boundaries of professional conduct repeatedly," the NMC's panel said.

With one woman, it found he had "stared" at her chest and on another occasion put his hand up the back of her top.

The panel heard he was "under significant stress at the time", with the troubled hospital for children and young people suffering from a "toxic work environment".

But it said there was nothing it had been told "that could justify your treatment of your colleagues, or your dishonesty and lack of integrity."

He was also found to have misled the CQC over why he left the hospital. It said he told it that he left to look after a family member.

Bartlette was the hospital's head of nursing when 14-year-old patient Ruth Szymankiewicz, from Salisbury, died after a self-inflicted injury there in February 2022.

A jury concluded Ruth was unlawfully killed following treatment at the hospital, which was shut down in July 2023.

Many former patients are currently taking legal action following their treatment at the hospital.

It had been rated inadequate and then requires improvement in two inspections by the CQC in 2021.