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Nurse who drugged patients for an ‘easy life’ is struck off

A nurse who drugged patients on a hospital stroke unit for an “easy life” has been struck off the nursing register.

Catherine Hudson was jailed for seven years and two months in December 2023 for illegally sedating two patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and conspiring with a junior colleague to sedate a third.

Now she has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) at a hearing held this week.

Police were alerted by hospital chiefs in November 2018 after a student nurse on a work placement said Hudson suggested administering unprescribed zopiclone, a sleeping pill, to an elderly patient, Preston Crown Court heard during her sentencing. Hudson was found guilty by a jury of three counts of ill-treating patients and she was also convicted of conspiring with her junior colleague to inappropriately sedate another patient.

The nursing misconduct panel found Hudson’s “ill-treatment of vulnerable stroke patients over a prolonged period of time particularly deplorable”, a report published this week said.

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Source: The Independent, 12 January 2025

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Nurse understaffing during the Covid-19 pandemic may have impacted patient safety

A new study has found nursing shortages may have negatively impacted patient safety, including unsafe practice management workarounds and cognitive failures.

Research has found cutting corners when understaffed may have been the only way to get the work done quicker due to the added strain and heavier workload and in another study, it was discovered nurse staffing demand increased to 245 percent between September and December 2020. 

It was also reported that nurses who had little or no experience of working in the ICU environment were assigned to work there which may have led to higher stress levels and cognitive failures such as memory and attention lapses. 

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Source: Recycle Intelligence, 13 July 2021

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Nurse suspended after forcing medication into patient’s mouth

A nurse has been suspended for three months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after forcing medication into a person with dementia's mouth.

An NMC Fitness to Practise (FtP) panel found Reni Kirilova had forced medicine into the patient’s mouth, held her mouth closed and shouted ‘take your tablets’ while working at the Chocolate Quarter Care Home in Bristol, run by the St Monica Trust.

Patient was reportedly distressed, waving her hands and shouting

The incident occurred on 30 May 2019, seven days after Ms Kirilova began working at the care home on 23 May. She was suspended on 7 June pending a police investigation and she resigned the same day.

One witness told the NMC hearing that they saw the nurse’s fingers go over the patient’s mouth for around 30 seconds while the patient was ‘flapping her hands’ and ‘trying to spit them out’.

They added the patient was distressed and was ‘waving her hands everywhere’ and shouting ‘no, no, no’.

Ms Kirilova denied the allegations and said that she had given the patient some water and then tilted the patient’s chin to help her swallow.

The panel found that the allegation she held her hand over the patient’s mouth was not true but that she had held it closed in some way, after three witnesses corroborated this.

The panel said they were not satisfied that she had considered how she would cope with stressful situations in the future and there was a risk it could happen again.

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Source: Nursing Standard, 7 April 2022

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Nurse struck off for failing to dispense morphine

A nurse in Somerset has been struck off after she failed to give morphine to a patient before they underwent surgery.

Amanda-Jane Price had been suspended from front-line duties since the incident in March 2019.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council ruled that Miss Price had been "dishonest" with her colleagues and her ability to practice medicine safely was "impaired".

Miss Price had been a nurse at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton since 2018. On 31 March 2019, Miss Price did not administer morphine to an individual in her care, falsely recording in her notes that morphine had been given.

An investigation by the hospital's emergency medicine consultant found that the morphine dose of 6mg had been noted on the patient's chart, but that the drug had not actually been administered.

Miss Price subsequently admitted to falsifying the prescription chart, and to "being consciously aware of her decision".

As a result of Miss Price's actions, the patient underwent an invasive procedure without analgesia, and subsequently complained of being in pain.

The panel concluded that Miss Price was guilty of misconduct and would initially be suspended.

"This was deliberate dishonesty which concealed her failure in clinical issues and caused actual patient harm to a vulnerable victim," the panel concluded.

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Source: BBC News, 20 September 2022

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Nurse struck off after medication lies

A nurse who recorded she had given medication to care home residents when in fact she had delegated the task to unqualified staff has been struck off.

Adelaide Maloane was working a night shift at Somerleigh Court in Dorchester, Dorset, in August 2019 when the incident took place.

Ms Maloane delegated giving 16 medicines to residents to an unqualified healthcare assistant at the home.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council said Ms Maloane had "failed to acknowledge the seriousness of her misconduct and dishonesty and the implications of her actions for residents, colleagues and the reputation of the nursing profession".

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Source: BBC News, 21 July 2022

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Nurse strike goes ahead in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike today in an ongoing dispute with the government about pay and concerns about patient safety.

Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will take part after it balloted its members in October. It has said that low pay is the cause of chronic understaffing that is putting patients at risk and leaves NHS staff overworked.

It will be the second day of strikes in December, after an initial day of industrial action on 15 December, the RCN’s biggest in its history. It meant the cancellation of thousands of outpatient appointments and non-urgent operations.

More strikes have been threatened for January unless talks between union negotiators and the government takes place before Thursday, 48 hours after the strike on Tuesday.

The RCN’s general secretary and chief executive, Pat Cullen, said: “For many of us, this is our first time striking and our emotions are really mixed. The NHS is in crisis, the nursing profession can’t take any more, our loved ones are already suffering.

“It is not unreasonable to demand better. This is not something that can wait. We are committed to our patients and always will be.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 December 2022

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Nurse shortages leave people dying in pain, charity warns

People are dying at home without the correct nursing support or pain relief because of staff shortages, according to the end-of-life charity Marie Curie.

One in three nurses, responding to a survey by the charity and Nursing Standard, say a lack of staff is the main challenge providing quality care to dying people.

More than half of the nurses said they feel the standard of care has deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 548 nursing staff across acute and community settings in the UK completed the survey in September.

They raise concerns about the increased number of people dying at home and insufficient numbers of community nurses to support these people and their families.

One nurse who responded to the survey said: "If more [people] are dying at home then there is a huge pressure on local district nursing teams which struggle with staffing as it is."

Julie Pearce, chief nurse and executive director of quality and caring services at Marie Curie, said: "The pandemic has accelerated change across many care settings.

"More people are dying at home and staffing to support this shift isn't there.

"The data shows a hidden crisis happening behind closed doors and people dying without access to pain relief or the dignity they deserve."

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Source: The Independent, 27 October 2021

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Nurse shortage forces NHS hospital to shut critical-care bed

An NHS hospital in Norwich has had to close four beds in its high dependency unit because it does not have enough nurses to staff them.

Norfolk and Norwich university hospital (NNUH) decided on Monday to temporarily shut the beds in the Gissing ward of its critical care complex.

The beds, which are used for seriously ill patients, have been shut despite flu and other viruses that circulate at this time of year leaving more patients than usual suffering from breathing problems.

Hospital managers told doctors in an email that: “A decision has been made to temporarily close our GHDU beds and reduce to 20 bed capacity on our CCC [critical care complex] from today as the nursing staffing is insufficient to keep Gissing open.”

The closure is another stark illustration of both the lack of staff in the NHS, which in England has around 100,000 vacancies, and the extra strain winter is putting on hospitals.

NHS bosses warned recently that staff shortages were now so widespread that patients’ safety and quality of care are under threat.

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Source: The Guardian, 31 December 2019

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Nurse shortage causes Nightingale hospital to turn away patients

Dozens of patients with Covid-19 have been turned away from the NHS Nightingale hospital in London because it has too few nurses to treat them, the Guardian can reveal.

The hospital has been unable to admit about 50 people with the disease and needing “life or death” care since its first patient arrived at the site, in the ExCeL exhibition centre, in London’s Docklands, on 7 April. Thirty of these people were rejected because of a lack of staff.

The planned transfer of more than 30 patients from established London hospitals to the Nightingale was “cancelled due to staffing issues”, according to NHS documents seen by the Guardian.

The revelation raises questions about the role and future of the hospital, which up until Monday had only treated 41 patients, despite being designed to include almost 4,000 beds.

One member of staff said: “There are plenty of people working here, including plenty of doctors. But there aren’t enough critical care nurses. They’re already working in other hospitals and being run ragged there. There aren’t spare people [specialist nurses] around to do this. That’s the problem. That leads to patients having to be rejected, because there aren’t enough critical care nurses.”

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Source: The Guardian. 21 April 2020

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Nurse shortage ‘delaying treatment for 21% of UK cancer patients’

More than 600,000 cancer patients in the UK are facing treatment delays or missing out on vital support because of a shortage of specialist nurses, a new report from Macmillan Cancer Support reveals.

One in five of all those living with cancer (21%) are lacking dedicated support. The NHS is suffering from a “shocking” shortfall of 3,000 specialist nurses in England alone, according to the analysis by Macmillan Cancer Support.

As a result, cancer patients are struggling with medication, having hospital appointments cancelled because there are not enough staff or experiencing devastating delays to chemotherapy. In some cases, patients are ending up in A&E.

Patricia Marquis, England director of the Royal College of Nursing, warned the workforce crisis was having a “devastating impact” on people living with cancer. “Expertise built up over many years is lost very quickly and it is patients who pay the price, as this report shows,” she added.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 September 2021

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Nurse says she faced hours of racist abuse

A nurse who was racially abused at work has urged Health Minister Robin Swann to take action on racism towards healthcare staff.

Beverly Simpson, a nurse for more than 25 years, said she was subjected to hours of abuse while working last weekend.

The incident at the weekend took place in a private healthcare setting, Ms Simpson told BBC Radio Foyle.

She said she was called racist slurs by a patient for several hours.

"I want to do nursing, I have always been a nurse," she said. "I never realised that I would be placed in such a vulnerable position and I actually question myself if I should walk away."

Ms Simpson said she wanted to speak publicly to make sure "any other nurse from a black or minority ethic group did not feel alone".

"There is abuse going on, it's something that is happening," she said. "I felt, for the first time in a long while, about quitting. I asked myself: 'What is the point?'

"I understand that when people are sick their defences may be down, they're more vulnerable and they may say things they shouldn't, but there was a nastiness to it."

In a statement, the Department of Health said racism was not something that any colleague in Health and Social Care (HSC) should have to endure.

"We want to send a clear message, from the very top of our health and social care system, that such behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated," the department said.

"We fully recognise and respect the hard work, commitment and dedication of HSC staff from within the BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] community."

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Source: BBC News, 6 September 2022

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Nurse sacked for allegedly trying to discredit hospital during CQC inspection cleared by tribunal

A nurse who was sacked by a private hospital provider treating NHS patients which believed she had deliberately tried to sabotage its Care Quality Commission inspection has won a tribunal. 

An employment tribunal found Care UK’s dismissal of Lorna Jarrett carried “the taint of race discrimination” and said the company had provided no evidence of any malice on her part.

Ms Jarret worked at the North East London Treatment Centre. The judgment said management at the facility were convinced Ms Jarrett had deliberately faxed confidential patient identifiable data to the inspectorate instead of the GP surgery they were supposed to be sent to. This incident occurred in the week of the centre’s CQC inspection.

However, the tribunal ruled Care UK “did not explore any evidence that might support the claimant’s account and disbelieved her explanation”. It added: “Finding that she sent the fax deliberately and maliciously demands an explanation.”

The tribunal judgment said it was Ms Jarrett’s case that “subconscious bias was in play” and found Care UK had not explained the “lack of any motive”.

Employment judge Lewis said: “Whilst we accept that Mr O’Brien did not consciously discriminate against the claimant because of her race we find that the factors relied on, her demeanour, attitude, her supposed lack of remorse, are matters that demonstrate subconscious bias and are not free from the taint of race discrimination. We find that the respondent has failed to discharge the burden on it to explain the difference in treatment.”

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Source: HSJ, 15 December 2021

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Nurse reveals sexual harassment and whistleblowing ‘nightmare’

A nurse has warned that she has been “crushed and silenced” over a battle with the NHS and the nursing regulator to investigate claims that she was sexually harassed by a colleague at work.

Michelle Russell told Nursing Times of the “eight-year nightmare” she has endured since coming forward about her experiences and that she said had recently led her nursing career to come to an end.

“Knowing what’s happened to me is not going to make it easier for anybody else to speak out"

She has argued that “speaking up is not encouraged” in the NHS and that her case would discourage other nurses from coming forward about sexual harassment.

Ms Russell said: “Anybody who has been around me would be able to see the emotional impact of all of this on me.

“I’ve lost my job for highlighting a public safety concern.”

The national guardian for the NHS told Nursing Times sexual harassment was a “patient safety issue” and warned that staff continued to face difficulties when speaking out.

It comes as the latest NHS Staff Survey this month revealed that almost 4% of nurses and midwives had been the target of unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace by another member of staff in the last 12 months.

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Source: Nursing Times, 15 March 2024

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Nurse recruitment drive launched by NHS England amid acute shortages

The NHS is launching an effort to recruit tens of thousands of nurses to help fill the record number of vacancies that low pay, Covid and heavy workloads have created across the service.

A multimedia blitz will try to raise nursing’s profile as a worthwhile career by featuring patients who benefited from nurses’ skills and dedication.

NHS England’s “We are the NHS” campaign will use radio, social media and cinema advertisements to portray nursing as a varied and fulfilling role that can change people’s lives.

It comes soon after NHS figures showed that the number of empty posts in nursing across hospitals, mental health, community care and other services had reached 46,828 – the largest number ever. That means that more than one in 10 nursing roles (11.8%) are unfilled across the service overall.

While the NHS is short of almost every type of staff, service chiefs say the acute lack of nurses is a key reason why so many patients are waiting so long for A&E, cancer treatment and other care.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2022

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Nurse pioneers new device to reduce NG tube insertion errors

A nurse-led trial has found that a new electronic tool could reduce the number of preventable injuries and deaths caused by wrongly inserting nasogastric tubes.

The study, led by Tracy Earley, a consultant nutrition nurse at Royal Preston Hospital, tested a new fibre-optic device which can tell clinicians definitively if a nasogastric tube – which is inserted through the nose and delivers food, hydration and medicine into the stomach – has been placed correctly.

Currently, to check if nasogastric tubes – also referred to as NG tubes – are in the right place, nurses have to extract bodily fluid from the patient through the tube. Clinicians then test this fluid on a pH strip to judge whether the placement is correct.

Studies show that interpreting the pH level results in mistakes 12-30% of the time, and that in 46% of cases nurses are unable to draw aspirate at all. This means patients have to undergo x-rays, leaving them without nutrition or treatment for longer.

The study tested a device called NGPod, which uses a fibre-optic sensor to retrieve the pH reading from the tip of the NG tube leading to a definitive 'yes' or 'no' result in terms of whether it has been placed correctly – removing the need for aspirate or interpretation from the health professional.

It found that the device was as accurate as pH strip testing, and removed all of the risks associated with making subjective pH strip judgements.

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Source: Nursing Times, 18 July 2023

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Nurse Lucy Letby guilty of murdering seven babies on neonatal unit

Nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies on a neonatal unit, making her the UK's most prolific child serial killer in modern times.

The 33-year-old has also been convicted of trying to kill six other infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

Letby deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin.

Commenting on the verdict, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Rob Behrens said:

“We know that, in general, people work in the health service because they want to help and that when things go wrong it is not intentional. At the same time, and too often we see the commitment to public safety in the NHS undone by a defensive leadership culture across the NHS.

“The Lucy Letby story is different and almost without parallel, because it reveals an intent to harm by one individual. As such, it is one of the darkest crimes ever committed in our health service. Our first thoughts are with the families of the children who died. 

“However, we also heard throughout the trial, evidence from clinicians that they repeatedly raised concerns and called for action. It seems that nobody listened and nothing happened. More babies were harmed and more babies were killed. Those who lost their children deserve to know whether Letby could have been stopped and how it was that doctors were not listened to and their concerns not addressed for so long. Patients and staff alike deserve an NHS that values accountability, transparency, and a willingness to learn.  

“Good leadership always listens, especially when it’s about patient safety. Poor leadership makes it difficult for people to raise concerns when things go wrong, even though complaints are vital for patient safety and to stop mistakes being repeated. We need to see significant improvements to culture and leadership across the NHS so that the voices of staff and patients can be heard, both with regard to everyday pressures and mistakes and, very exceptionally, when there are warnings of real evil.”

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Nurse Lucy Letby charged with murder after Chester hospital baby deaths

A nurse is due in court charged with eight counts of murder following an investigation into baby deaths at the Countess of Chester hospital neonatal unit in Cheshire.

Lucy Letby, 30, is due to appear at Warrington magistrates court on Thursday. She was arrested for a third time on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the hospital, which began in 2017.

A force spokesman said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised Cheshire police to charge a healthcare professional with murder in connection with an ongoing investigation into a number of baby deaths at the Countess of Chester hospital.”

He said Letby was facing eight charges of murder and 10 charges of attempted murder relating to the period from June 2015 to June 2016.

On Tuesday, police said parents of all the babies involved were being kept fully updated on developments and were being supported by officers.

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Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2020

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Nurse in court accused of murdering eight babies

A nurse accused of murdering eight babies in an alleged year-long killing spree at an NHS hospital has appeared in court.

Lucy Letby, aged 31, appeared at Manchester Crown Court via videolink from HMP Peterborough on Monday morning.

She has been charged the murder of five boys and three girls at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The babies all died between June 2015 and June 2016.

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Source: The Independent, 10 May 2021

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Nurse gaps must be considered in NHS winter planning, warns RCN

Planning around what the NHS can deliver this winter must be based on how many nursing staff are available and the workload they can safely take on, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned.

Amid widespread nursing shortages, the union has called on the government to “be honest” about nurse vacancies and address what steps need to be taken to keep staff and patients safe.

“It is essential that learning is applied to planning for this winter, including what service can be delivered safely with the workforce available”

Last week NHS England moved to its highest level of emergency preparedness. But the RCN warned it still had grave concerns around how services would be safely staffed, claiming it was too late to find the nurses needed to meet the anticipated demands of the incoming winter.

Despite an increase in the number of nurses registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council this year, the college said there were still around 40,000 nurse vacancies in the NHS in England alone.

These shortages, which were felt across all areas of nursing, had been exacerbated because of staff self-isolating or being off sick because of COVID-19, the RCN noted.

The impacts of workforce shortages meant there was “enormous responsibility” on the nurses working and “intolerable pressure” on senior nursing leaders, it said. Unless local staffing plans prioritised safe and high-quality care, the few nurses in post were at risk of “burn out” this winter, the college added.

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Source: Nursing Times, 9 November 2020

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Nurse failed to manage dying patient's pain on last night of her life, tribunal told

A Northern Ireland nurse failed to properly manage a dying patient's pain on the last night of her life, a tribunal has heard.

Veteran staff nurse Bernard McGrail has been issued with a four-month suspension order over his failings in dealing with an end-of-life care resident while on a night shift at a Spa Nursing Homes Group facility in July, 2021.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practice panel said Mr McGrail's misconduct had caused "emotional distress" to the family of the woman, identified as Resident A.

It added: "There was a real risk of harm to Resident A through the inadequate management of their pain on their last evening."

A remorseful and apologetic Mr McGrail admitted a series of allegations including: a failure to appropriately manage Resident A’s pain; failure to investigate whether Resident A’s syringe driver was working correctly and a failure to escalate that the alarm on Resident A’s syringe driver sounded repeatedly.

Mr McGrail also admitted that without clinical justification, he administered a 5mg doses of Apixiban to Resident B on three dates on October 2020.

And on occasions between April 2020 and May 2022 failed to administer and/or record the administration of named medications to six other residents.

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Source: Belfast Telegraph, 12 May 2025

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Nurse died from cervical cancer after catalogue of errors

A nurse from South Gloucestershire died after doctors missed signs of her cervical cancer amid a series of "gross" failings, a coroner has ruled.

Julie O’Connor’s cancer was not picked up by North Bristol NHS Foundation Trust despite abnormalities in a smear test in 2014 and a biopsy in 2015. She went for multiple further checks for gynaecological problems in 2016 and 2017 and was referred three times to specialists. However, Ms O'Conner only received a cancer diagnosis once she decided to seek private treatment at Spire Hospital in Bristol.

An inquest into her death was held in Flax Bourton, Somerset, this week.

Maria Voisin, Senior Coroner for the Avon area, found the cause of Ms O’Connor’s death to be of “natural causes contributed to by neglect". She recorded three instances of "gross failures" including the inaccurate smear test as well as mistakes in two further assessments.

Deputy medical director Tim Whittlestone said: “We accept the findings of the coroner and support her actions to build on our correspondence with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists."

“...I would like to reaffirm that North Bristol has investigated these errors and more importantly that we have learnt lessons from our mistakes."

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Source: Nursing Times, 31 January 2020

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Nurse did not escalate baby concerns, panel hears

A children's nurse has been struck off from practising after the regulator found serious care failings.

Elzabeth Lennon, a children's nurse working in Northampton, was reviewed by a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Fitness to Practise Committee over care provided in March 2022.

The panel previously found she failed to carry out regular checks of a cannula location, did not properly respond to repeated infusion pump alarms, and did not escalate concerns for "Baby A", a vulnerable baby when required.

"Mrs Lennon's actions breached fundamental tenets of the profession, pose an ongoing risk to patient safety and would be deemed concerning by the members of the public," the panel said.

The panel said Lennon had "addressed how she would handle a similar situation differently in the future", and accepted her statement that, although she made mistakes, she believed she was acting in Baby A's best interests.

However, the NMC panel found she had not shown a full understanding of the seriousness of her misconduct or its impact on colleagues and the nursing profession.

Because of this, the panel said there was an "ongoing risk of repetition", and so "a finding of impairment is necessary on the grounds of public protection".

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Source: BBC News, 14 April 2026

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Nurse begs hospital bosses to ‘see for themselves how unsafe it is’

An advanced nurse practitioner working in primary care services at Grimsby Hospital has called on the hospital senior leadership to ‘see for themselves how unsafe it is’.

The nurse, who has penned a letter to bosses at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust says they are having “worst experience to date” in their career and fears somebody will die unnecessarily unless something is urgently done.

“I have never in my whole career seen patients hanging off trolleys, vomiting down corridors, having ECGs down corridors, patients desperate for the toilet, desperate for a drink. Basic human care is not being given safely or adequately," says the nurse.

Hospital bosses say they are taking the letter seriously and are investigating. Earlier this month it was revealed that some hospitals were being forced to deploy ‘corridor nurses’ in a bid to maintain patient safety while dealing with unprecedented demand.

Dr Peter Reading, Chief Executive, said: “I can confirm we have received this email and that the hospital and North East Lincolnshire CCG are taking these concerns seriously. The person who raised the concerns with us has been contacted and informed that we are jointly investigating what they have told us.

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Source: Nursing Notes, 22 January 2020

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Nurse and leadership training face ‘devastating’ cuts

Trusts are urging the government to exempt NHS-related roles from controversial plans to axe funding for higher-level apprenticeships.

The government announced plans in September to replace the existing scheme for funding apprenticeships with a “growth and skills levy”. The new levy is intended to support investment “in younger workers” and shorter schemes, which means national funding for “level 7” apprenticeships, the equivalent of a master’s degree, will be reduced.

Trusts typically use the level 7 apprenticeship levy to fund training for various advanced clinical roles, such as district nurses and advanced clinical practitioners.

The apprenticeships are also used by trusts to fund a range of leadership training programmes, such as the NHS Leadership Academy’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Rosalind Franklin programmes.

In an open letter addressed to Wes Streeting, seen by HSJ, trust leaders said the proposed changes “risk devastating critical training pathways for NHS roles”.

The letter said employers would face “considerable financial barriers” if they had to cover the cost of the apprentice schemes, likely to lead to a “significant decline” in uptake. The proposals also threatened to “undermine” the NHS’s capacity to meet the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, it said.

It continued: “Without central support, the NHS cannot sustain these training pathways. The ripple effects will compromise workforce development, weaken healthcare provision, and exacerbate the already critical recruitment and retention challenges facing the NHS.”

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Source: HSJ, 3 February 2025

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Nurse ‘bullied’ for wearing cross wins unfair dismissal case

A Christian nurse who claimed she was discriminated against for wearing a cross at work has won her case for unfair dismissal.

Mary Onuoha, a theatre practitioner at Croydon University Hospital in London, said she was bullied and harassed for refusing to remove her necklace in 2018.

But an employment tribunal has ruled Croydon Health Services NHS Trust discriminated against and harassed Ms Onuoha over her refusal to remove the jewellery. The trust told her the necklace was a safety risk and must not be outwardly visible.

Ms Onuoha, supported by Christian Legal Centre, said she had worked at the hospital for 13 years before being asked to remove the symbol.

The tribunal found the employer’s uniform policy arbitrary, with many staff allowed to wear necklaces and other religious symbols were permitted.

Following the ruling, Christian Legal Centre chief executive Andrea Williams said the trust’s interpretation of uniform guidance had led to a campaign of harassment against a devoted, experienced, and highly professional nurse, who was in effect hounded out of the NHS.

Ms Onuoha said she was investigated and suspended from clinical duties when she refused to remove the item and she was demoted to receptionist duties. In June 2020, she went off work with stress and said she felt she had no alternative but to resign.

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Source: Nursing Standard, 6 January 2022

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