A Kirklees care home nurse who avoided being struck off after failing to attempt resuscitation on a dying patient is to face a second disciplinary hearing over the incident.

Winifred Jozi decided not to administer CPR or to call 999 – instead contacting the NHS Direct helpline – after a colleague at Holme House Nursing and Residential Home in Gomersal found 59-year-old resident Susan Burgess ‘cold and unresponsive’.

She also failed to complete any paperwork to record Mrs Burgess’ death before leaving at the end of her night shift in December 2012.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) committee suspended her for two months in November last year after finding her guilty of misconduct in relation to the record-keeping – though not over the failure to attempt resuscitation or to ring 999.

But she will now have to face another hearing after a High Court judge ruled that the charges levelled against her did not reflect the serious nature of the incident.

Mr Justice Singh told the court in London that Ms Jozi was the only nurse on duty at the care home on December 5, 2012 when Mrs Burgess died.

One of the five care assistants working at that time had checked on Mrs Burgess, who had early-onset dementia after suffering a head injury in a road accident, at about 5.45am and found her sitting up and looking ‘normal, content’.

But when the staff member returned to her room just 35 minutes later she found the grandmother ‘cold and unresponsive’ and alerted Ms Jozi.

When the nurse attended she did not attempt CPR despite the fact Mrs Burgess did not have a ‘do not resuscitate’ notice and called NHS Direct for advice, instead of ringing 999.

She also failed to complete an incident form or to document what had happened in any way before leaving at the end of her night shift.

Ms Jozi was suspended by the home the same day and was later sacked.

Although a post-mortem concluded that CPR was ‘unlikely’ to have saved Mrs Burgess’ life, Ms Jozi’s failure to act was strongly criticised by the coroner who conducted the inquest into the patient’s death.

But the NMC committee found that she was only guilty of misconduct in relation to the incomplete paperwork and not in relation to the failure to resuscitate or to call 999.

Challenging the committee’s decision at the High Court, the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care argued that the committee was not given the full picture regarding what had gone wrong in this case.

Lawyers for the authority said there was evidence the committee did not consider, including the care home’s policy on dealing with a sudden death and the statements of the care assistants on duty at the time.

Allowing the appeal, and ordering a re-hearing of the case, Mr Justice Singh said: “In all the circumstances, I have come to the conclusion that the view to which the committee came was indeed a view to which no reasonable committee could have come.”

The judge issued an injunction preventing Ms Jozi from practising as a nurse between now and the second NMC hearing which he said was ‘necessary to maintain public confidence in the professional registration of nurses’.