A nurse who forgot to give patients their medication and then stole prescription drugs from the care home where she was working has been struck off.
Angela Weston, 51, left patients, including one who suffered from Parkinson's Disease, without their lunchtime painkillers and said she had only remembered about it when she got home from work.
Three weeks later a bottle of temazepam was discov
ered missing and Weston initially claimed it had been taken by another member of staff who had 'got in with a bad crowd'.
She had been employed by Four Seasons Health Care at the Belmont Care Home in Eastbourne for less than three months when she failed to give the medication on March 8, 2005, and took the bottle on March 30, 2005.
Weston, who had been qualified as a nurse for more than 25 years, was not present for a hearing at the Nursing and Midwifery Council and was not represented.
The conduct committee found Weston inappropriately removed temazepam, misled her managers, and failed to ensure patients under her care had received medication.
The loss of the temazepam was discovered by the night shift nurse who took over from Weston, who had been working the day shift.
Weston was contacted and, after denying knowing anything about it, then said that she had traced a third party who had stolen the drugs and had persuaded them to hand them over to her.
The following morning she returned an unlabelled bottle containing 52 tablets to the home, almost double the 28 tablets that had gone missing.
The hearing was told that the tablets all appeared to be temazepam, but this has never been definitely established.
Catherine Campbell was acting manager at the care home at the time and interviewed Weston when she arrived for her shift later that day.
She told the NMC panel, "Angela took the stance that she was protecting another member of staff.
"There was somebody who had got in with a bad crowd and she was trying to help them and support them, and when she heard the drugs had gone missing she suspected it was this person and got in touch with them during the night.
"She refused to name the person. She said words to the effect that she wouldn't like to name them because she was hoping things would improve for them.
"We were quite frustrated with the explanation because obviously it still meant the home was vulnerable because this person was still on our staff lists and we had no clue who they were."
Mrs Campbell, together with the regional manager who was carrying out the interview with her, told Weston that she would be sacked if she did not reveal the name and police would be informed.
"That is when Angela said, quite blasé, 'It was me, I took them'."
Weston was dismissed and police were contacted, although no criminal charges were brought against the nurse.
Mrs Campbell had earlier told the panel that staff at the Belmont Care Home had been trying to be supportive of Weston at the time of the offences, as her husband was seriously ill in hospital.
She said, "I was looking at pain control and I recall that one of the residents had a Parkinson's related drug so I was particularly concerned why this medication would not have been given because of the well-being of the patients.
"I spoke to Angela as soon as she came on duty.
"I was very aware of my approach because in the home we knew that her husband was very poorly at the time and we were trying to support her, giving her offers of help and making sure she could get to the hospital.
"Her explanation to me really shocked me because she didn't seem at all surprised or concerned.
"When I asked her if she realised she hadn't given the medication, she said: 'Yes, I remembered yesterday evening at 6pm'.
"She said she hadn't been able to give the medication because there had been a lot of people requiring things of her during the day."
Mrs Campbell, had been brought in to the Belmont Care Home because there was concern about the home from social services over problems including a high number of pressure sores, the hearing was told.
The home is now closed and a new one is being built on its site.
The panel found the charges against Weston were proved, constituted misconduct, and her fitness to practice was impaired.
Panel chair Anne Kelly said, "Public confidence in the nursing profession would be undermined were the registrant's name not to be removed from the register."
Weston, of Eastbourne, did not contest inappropriately removing a quantity of temazepam, making her guilty of misconduct.
She also did not contest charges of misleading her managers and failing to ensure that patients under her care received their lunchtime medication.
