A DEPUTY ward manager who abused staff from an East Lancashire health trust on Twitter and via a personal blog has been suspended for six months.

Norman MacKenzie was being investigated for not reporting an absconder and other patient breaches while working at Rochdale’s Scott House, which is run by Whalley-based Calderstones NHS Trust. While undergoing the probe he hurled expletives and death threats at colleagues and the Nursing and Midwifery Council on Twitter, a conduct and competence committee hearing was told.

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MacKenzie, who had a 30-year unblemished career, has been suspended. His fitness to return to the profession will be assessed by experts when his ban is over.

One female colleague, a clinical nurse manager at Calderstones, had been left “in considerable distress” after MacKenzie vented his anger on fellow staff members.

She told the committee: “It was appalling. It was targeting a specific body of people who could not defend themselves. As much as we tried to act professionally, and ignore it, it did impact on us. Professionally, I could not believe it was happening. He was a registered nurse and worked as a ward manager, and put this out in the media for everyone to see.”

Dr Mary-Teresa Deignan, for the NMC, said MacKenzie was being investigated after a Scott House female resident absconded in May 2012. He claimed she was gone for less than 15 minutes but management believed it was nearer 45.

He was also being censured for not filing a report when another patient was late returning from free time, and for letting a third service user ride alone on a fairground ride in Bury town centre.

The NMC hearing was told that the Twitter and blog comments, where he told fellow staff members to die, abused another as snivelling and made unsavoury comments regarding incest to a third, were made between February and June 2013.

MacKenzie, who admitted the charges, claimed he had been under stress at the time. He said he had taken down his Twitter account and blog, accepting he was ashamed of their contents.