A DERRIFORD nurse let an elderly patient sleep on a broken bed that had sparks coming out of it, a hearing was told.

Rebecca Ogley, aged 33, a staff nurse on Wolf Ward, had been told to take the bed away from patients, after workmen noticed the electronics were malfunctioning.

But she was too busy to change the sheets and left it in use all night because a 'faulty' sign was covered, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

A new bed brought in as a replacement had been left outside the ward at Derriford Hospital, despite Ogley being instructed to swap the two during a night shift in October 2009, it was said.

Ward nurse Heather Christie said it was only the following morning that staff noticed this had not taken place.

"I assumed it had been changed as Becky had been told to do it the night before," she told the panel.

"It was only in the morning that my manager, Margaret Mahoney, said something along the lines of: What is that bed doing in the corridor?'

"At first I thought it was the faulty bed waiting to be taken away, but then I noticed it didn't have a faulty sign on it.

"I had put the sign there the day before because a house keeper told me there were blue sparks coming out of the back of it when he tried move it.

"There were no fireworks when I went to look, and the bed was at about a 30 degree angle so it can't have been that uncomfortable.

"I was concerned though that the patient was holding a beaker of water that she had been drinking from. I saw no sparks but it was definitely a concern."

Ogley has also admitted at a misconduct hearing in central London not changing a feeding drip that was being used by another patient.

Miss Christie said she had informed Ogley it would need changing when she finished her shift on January 25, 2010.

"In the morning when I did my first observations, the previous drip had been removed, but not replaced," she said.

"I couldn't understand why that happened, but when I asked Becky she said: 'It's a day staff job.'

"I took that as meaning that she thought I should have done it."

Ogley admits not swapping the beds over and not performing a leg strength test on a third patient.

She denies a further allegation of entering an isolation ward without protective clothing.

If found guilty of misconduct she could be kicked out of the profession.

The hearing continues.