Posted 11 July 2017 - 14:57
Posted 11 July 2017 - 14:57
News
Nurse struck off after falsely claiming to be a leading surgeon
A nurse who lied to his wife and friends for seven years about being a leading surgeon has been struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.
A nurse who lied to his wife and friends for seven years about being a leading surgeon has been struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register
Kevin O’Flanagan claimed he was an orthopaedic surgeon between 2006 and 2014, when he was actually working as a theatre nurse.
He wore scrubs around the house and as pyjamas, kept a stethoscope and intended to turn a metal hip replacement he kept on the coffee table into a door knob, his former wife told an NMC hearing which took place on London on 26 June to 4 July.
Mr Flanagan also lied to his best man, his former wife’s family and had ‘orthopaedic practitioner’ recorded on his marriage certificate.
In addition, he wrongly described himself as a clinical lead for head and neck/oral and maxillofacial surgery department on the professional networking site LinkedIn.
Multiple deceptions
departures from the standards of honesty and integrity that are fundamental requirements
of being a registered nurse.’ Picture: Charles Milligan
The regulator, which upheld all 11 charges against him, heard that he had treated his former wife, also a doctor, and a friend for back pain and given them prescription medication.
Mr O’Flanagan wrote a fake letter to himself pretending to be from a colleague offering him a training fellowship in cranio-facial maxillary surgery.
The panel also found Mr O'Flanagan falsely claimed for 42 bank shifts he had not worked. During eight months in 2013, he received £4,500 pay for bank work he had not carried out, the hearing was told.
A nursing colleague described how he went ‘quiet and grey and looked sick’ when she asked him about some incorrect forms for bank shift pay.
'Moment of madness'
His subterfuge was uncovered when his former wife wrote to Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust in 2014 stating that he had been ‘falsely passing himself off as medical doctor to the outside world’ for the previous seven years.
Mr O’Flanagan admitted all the charges to the NMC in 2016, but later rescinded the majority of the admissions. In an email to the regulator in June, he described his actions as a ‘moment of madness’. He also accused his former wife of trying to damage his career.
NMC counsel Anna Ling told the hearing that Mr O’Flanagan’s repeated dishonesty was a clear breach of the NMC code and that his conduct fell far short of the standards expected of a registered nurse.
Deliberate actions
The hearing panel declared he deliberately created the impression that he was a surgeon, had failed to show insight into his actions and ‘went to great lengths to conceal the fact that he was a nurse'.
‘Mr O’Flanagan embarked on a sustained and calculated course of dishonest and misleading conduct in his private life over a prolonged period of seven years,’ the panel concluded.
‘Mr O’Flanagan’s actions represented serious departures from the standards of honesty and integrity that are fundamental requirements of being a registered nurse.’
The panel added: 'Given his persistent lack of insight, the presence of harmful, deep-seated attitudinal issues and the significant risk of repetition identified at the impairment stage, the panel is satisfied that a striking off order was the only sanction sufficient to protect the public.'
The panel immediately imposed an interim suspension order for 18 months.
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