A CARE home manager who failed to register the deaths of six elderly residents has been struck off.

Isla Meek admitted not informing authorities about the deaths in December 2007 and January 2008 while working at the brand new Bamfield Lodge Care Home in Whitchurch.

Meek and deputy manager Julie Lloyd also failed to keep proper drugs records.

One patient was rushed to hospital after Meek failed to ensure he was given the necessary drugs, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Giving evidence, Meek said that she had tried to contact the authorities to find out who to send the files on the deaths to, but admitted that "they just sat on my desk".

She added: "In terms of the total chaos that was going on, I just left it."

She denied she was responsible for the record keeping as she said that was the duty of Lloyd and other nurses.

But NMC panel chair Jillian Alderwick said: "Under the regulations, which were the regulations in force at the time, Mrs Meek, as the care home manager, had imposed on her a statutory duty to ensure that all the assessments had been carried out and recorded.

"This does not mean that these assessments had to be carried out by the home manager herself, but it did mean that she was ultimately responsible for seeing that they were done by members of her staff.

"Given her great experience as a nurse, she would certainly have realised that the care documentation was inadequate, had she bothered to check any of it."

She added: "Each of these failings by Mrs Meek had the potential to compromise the wellbeing of the residents in her care. In one case, her omission resulted in a resident being admitted to hospital as an emergency patient.

"In this case Mrs Meek's failings were very wide ranging. She put her interests ahead of those of her residents. Throughout this hearing, she has continued to show a worrying lack of insight into the implications of her past actions."

Both Meek and Lloyd were struck off by the NMC panel sitting in central London.