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.
Ms Watson returned to work the next day and was confronted about this, and she admitted to taking tramadol - on prescription - before she was told she would be suspended over concerns she had taken medicines from the hospital's stocks for her own personal use. She then admitted using Cyclizine during shift and said she had felt sick.
After being sent home, an internal investigation commenced and her case was referred to the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service - and after a hearing between November 11 and November 18 this year, Ms Watson was formally found to have committed misconduct. She did not attend the hearing or make representations herself.
The published ruling states: "The Panel accepted the evidence of […] two senior Matrons within the Trust, that the Registrant’s self-administering of the drugs in question could have had serious implications for patient care, placing patients at risk of harm by self-administering one of more of the medications whilst on duty as an ODP.
"In particular, the Panel was concerned that the Registrant’s ability to respond to an emergency risked being compromised. The Panel also determined that the Registrant placed her colleagues and potentially members of the public at risk of harm by leaving blood spatters on the walls and floors of the toilet cubicles, and by leaving sharp items, such as needles and broken glass vials, in various locations in the Hospital."
The tribunal also found that Ms Watson had not engaged with occupational health services either at the time of the incident or since, nor had they co-operated with the hospital trust's internal investigation. However, the panel found in mitigation: "The incidents occurred when the Registrant was facing challenging personal circumstances, telling [two witnesses] on the night of the shift in question (but only when she was confronted) that she could not cope."
In conclusion the tribunal panel found that Ms Watson's actions were "nothing short of deplorable" and said that allegations she had caused risk to the public and acted dishonestly had been proven. The panel added it was "in no doubt that the Registrant's actions had the clear potential to undermine public confidence in the profession" and that "to characterise them as other than misconduct would fail to uphold proper professional standards".
As a result, and because the tribunal found the misconduct had been "very serious" and was "liable to be repeated with an ongoing risk of harm" - and as Ms Watson had shown an "absence of any desire" to address the issues, it was necessary for her to be struck off.
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