A nurse at an Ipswich mental health unit accused of leaving a mentally ill woman in a locked seclusion room overnight without checking on her has denied “abandoning” her for six hours.

Giving evidence during her trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Funmilola Dauda said that on the night in question the ward had been “difficult, chaotic and understaffed”.

She said that because of a shortage of staff she had to keep observation on another patient while a health care assistant kept watch on the patient in seclusion.

Dauda accepted that NHS protocol stated that patients in seclusion should be physically reviewed every two hours by two qualified mental health nurses and this hadn’t been done.

She said that instead, notes written by the health care assistant who had been keeping watch on the patient had been relied on to write “proxy” reviews.

Cross-examined by prosecution counsel, Jerry Hayes she denied “abandoning” the patient in seclusion for six hours and falsifying records.

Dauda, 50, of Prettygate, Colchester, and fellow mental health nurse Gbenga Oyewole, 60, of Fife, have pleaded not guilty to wilfully neglecting a patient between November 16 and 19, 2019.

The court has heard that the woman, who had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, was a patient on Lark Ward on the Woodlands Unit on the Ipswich Hospital site where Dauda and Oyewole worked as mental health nurses.

The alleged victim had been placed in seclusion in a locked room with a mattress after trying to escape and scratching a member of staff.

Although the woman was constantly observed on CCTV by a health care assistant, NHS protocol required her to be checked every two hours by two mental health nurses.

Mr Hayes claimed that CCTV showed that the defendants failed to physically review the woman at 1.20am, 3.20am and 5.20am but had stated in written reports that they had physically reviewed her at those times.

“We say these are fraudulent and not true because the reviews didn’t take place,” said Mr Hayes.

The trial continues.