A woman who was working in surgical theatres at Sunderland Royal Hospital stole drugs including diazepam from the hospital's supplies and took them herself in the staff toilets while on duty, a tribunal has found.
Fiona M Watson, formerly an registered operating department practitioner assisting anaesthetists at the hospital, has now been struck off after a panel found she had put NHS patients and staff at risk. On October 22, 2019, Ms Watson finished a night shift and was observed as looking "pale and unwell" and speaking slowly. The next day, colleagues found "a number of items in toilets on the unit which raised concerns that drugs had been self-administered by someone".
This included used dressings, swabs and needles, packaging of drugs such as Cyclizine and Diazepam. There was even blood splattered on the floor of a staff toilet.
