Islington Tribune - by SIMON WROE Published: 13 March 2009
Hearing told of nurse’s ‘phone relationship’ with mentally ill patient
A NURSE who maintained a secret phone relationship with a mentally ill patient has been cautioned at a misconduct hearing. Carlton Ravello, 51, a married father-of-two from Essex, ran up an £800 bill in calls and text messages to the woman from his work phone while he was employed with Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust, now the Foundation Trust, between 2004 and 2006.
A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel issued Mr Ravello with a five-year caution order last week after it emerged that the psychiatric nurse, who has more than 18 years’ experience, failed to reveal his contact with the woman – referred to as patient A – to employers.
Further claims that Mr Ravello had conducted a two-year sexual relationship with patient A were ruled out by the panel.
Mental health bosses at the crisis resolution team, based at Whittington Hospital in Archway, suspended Mr Ravello after discovering irregularities in the phone records in June 2006.
NMC spokeswoman Kristy Hempel said: “Carlton Ravello’s failure to disclose his contact with the patient and the extremely high number of phone calls he made to the patient constitute a number of breaches of the NMC code. “The five-year caution order is a serious sanction, which will sit on Ravello’s record and which he will need to disclose to any future employer.”