Nurse ward manager suspended for leaving bank shifts early
Posted 07 January 2025 - 17:15
Ward manager suspended from Nursing and Midwifery Council register for walking out of bank shifts early after authorising them to cover staffing gaps on own ward
A ward manager was suspended from the register after repeatedly leaving early on bank shifts she had been paid to cover.
Band 7 nurse Jacqueline Morse, had authority to arrange bank cover for her ward, and in that capacity had requested most of the shifts. But she repeatedly left work early – once working just 12 minutes of a shift.
Nursing bank shift fraud investigation
A fraud investigation found her actions, at King George Hospital in Ilford, east London had cost Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust £974 for 49.7 clinical hours, a Nursing and Midwifery (NMC) fitness to practise (FtP) case report stated.
Ms Morse also failed to complete timesheets, the FtP panel was told.
Nurse manager and some of the bank shifts she did not complete
A fraud investigation using information including Jacqueline Morse’s hospital car park exit times revealed she had:
- Once stopped work just 12 minutes into a bank shift
- Finished under 30 minutes early seven times
- Left between 30 minutes and one hour early on six occasions
- Stopped work an hour early 18 times
- Finished more than two hours early twice
Early starts and rare lunch breaks: nurse’s reasons for leaving her bank shifts ahead of time
Ms Morse admitted she had not worked the full bank shifts in question, when interviewed by an investigating hospital manager. In evidence to the FtP panel in late December, the manager said: ‘Jacqueline stated the reason was because she would rarely take a lunch break, or would start early for each shift. She did recognise this was not justification for leaving these shifts early.’
The panel said Ms Morse knew it was wrong to leave early without permission. It said patients had been placed at risk due to her early departures and found she lacked insight into her actions. However, it decided her failings had not amounted to the most serious dishonesty.
She has been suspended for 12 months with an interim order of 18 months for appeal.
The panel report said: ‘[This] allows the opportunity for a band 7 nurse with good clinical skills to return to the register,’ the report added.
NMC backlog: bank shifts case dates back almost a decade
The bank shifts date back to the 12 months to August 2016. The NMC said the case hearing had been delayed because it had been waiting for information from the trust’s own fraud investigation, stating: ‘The NMC accepts it did not chase disclosure as frequently as it should have, which led to further delays.’
Subsequent investigations delayed the case further, with the pandemic also slowing the process, the regulator said.
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