Posted 07 November 2023 - 09:00
Posted 07 November 2023 - 09:00
News
Nurse struck off for using spare COVID vaccines on friends
GP nurse tells fitness to practise panel she wanted to save lives rather than see vaccines going to waste
GP nurse tells fitness to practise panel she wanted to save lives rather than see vaccines going to waste
A general practice nurse who gave spare COVID-19 vaccines to colleagues’ and her own family and friends has been struck off.
Diana Morris was the lead practice nurse at Dockham Surgery in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, in February 2021 when she administered the jabs to ineligible patients because she did not want them to go to waste, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise (FtP) panel was told.
But the panel said the surgery was clear that any spare vaccines could have gone to the next eligible patient and there was a ‘lack of understanding’ of this by Ms Morris.
She told the panel that if a jab was going to be binned then she would ‘very quickly find someone to take it’ in a bid save lives rather than see a vaccine going to waste.
Nurse vaccinated 11 ineligible patients, including family members or friends of staff and her own husband
At the time, only those who were clinically vulnerable, over the age of 70, housebound or in a nursing home, or working as front-line health and social care workers were eligible for the vaccines.
The FtP panel heard Ms Morris, a registered nurse for 23 years and a prescriber for more than a decade, vaccinated 11 ineligible patients. Some of these were family members or friends of staff, and not patients at the surgery. One was her husband, who was registered at a different GP surgery.
Some patients were also given the vaccines without proper checks of their medical records. The panel was told Ms Morris gave an AstraZeneca vaccine to a patient who was deemed to be at high risk from receiving the jab because of his age.
On another occasion she gave a patient a second COVID jab four weeks after he had received his first one, when the national guidance recommended a gap of 12 weeks between jabs, the panel heard.
Nurse tells panel she lost her home, job and reputation after anonymous letter led to discovery
Ms Morris was said to have contacted patients by phone to ask if they wanted to get the vaccine outside of normal practice hours, and sending them to the home of a colleague – a healthcare assistant who was not qualified to administer vaccines.
The FtP report says Ms Morris did not disclose that she had arranged for the jabs to be given by the colleague and that the surgery only became aware after it received an anonymous letter about the colleague. It adds: ‘While there is no evidence that Ms Morris’s actions actually caused harm to patients, she put the patients at unwarranted risk of harm.’
Ms Morris did not attend the hearing but in an email to the NMC she said she felt ruined and had ‘lost everything – my job, my home, my reputation’ and was struggling mentally. She said she had been under ‘massive pressure’ to vaccinate as many people as possible.
She said she would like to return to some form of caring work and would ‘never knowingly put any patient at risk’.
The NMC imposed an 18-month interim suspension order. If the decision is not appealed, a substantive striking off order will replace the interim order 28 days after Ms Morris is informed of the decision.
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