NHS FORTH VALLEY has been fined £8000 for failing to ensure the health and safety of a dementia patient who escaped from a hospital ward and was later found dead in a canal.

Alexander "Sandy" Gerrard absconded from the former Bonnybridge Hospital, near Larbert, more than five years ago.

Mr Gerrard, 69, described by police as "very vulnerable", was spotted a few hours later more than seven miles away on the outskirts of Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire.

A major search operation was launched with specialist dogs, police search experts, fire and rescue service thermal imaging equipment and a police helicopter all called in to help.

Posters featuring his photograph were also released to the public in an effort to trace him.

Sadly, his body was found a week later, in the Forth and Clyde Canal at Auchenstarry, near Kilsyth.

On Monday, October 13, Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Mr Gerrard had made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to abscond from the hospital six days earlier, but NHS officials had failed to carry out "a suitable and sufficient assessment" of the risk of him doing it again.

He was reported missing from the unit, on Falkirk Road, Bonnybridge, around 9pm on Tuesday, May 10, 2011, having been last seen on Ward 2 of the hospital sometime between 3pm and 5pm that day.

The health board pleaded guilty to failing to assess the risks to Mr Gerrard's health and safety, contrary to 1999 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

Sheriff Derek Livingston imposed the £8000 fine.

The Health Board closed Bonnybridge Hospital just seven month later, with its staff and patients transferred to the Falkirk Community Hospital. The site was later sold for housing.

A spokeswoman for NHS Forth Valley said: "We are very sorry for the circumstances surrounding this patient's death in May 2011 and would like to again apologise to the family for the distress this has caused.

"A number of actions have been carried out to address the shortcomings identified as a result of both our own internal investigation and the subsequent investigation carried out by the HSE."