The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has imposed a striking-off order on Melanie Hayworth following a review hearing on September 15. The order replaces an 18-month conditions of practice order that had been imposed in March last year.
The Fitness to Practise Committee concluded that Mrs Hayworth’s fitness to practise remains impaired and that she should be removed from the nursing register immediately.
The original case was called in response to an incident in November 2020, where Mrs Hayworth administered a patient with a shot of adrenaline instead of a routine flu vaccination.
This was followed by three other incidents in 2021 and 2022, where Mrs Hayworth administered the wrong medication or incorrect doses to three other patients.
This includes an incident in 2021, where she administered 5mg of Morphine Sulphate instead of the 30-100mg that was prescribed.
The panel also found she incorrectly documented administering 10mg of midazolam rather than the required 20mg dose on two consecutive days in June 2021. In a separate incident in February 2022, she applied steroid cream to a patient without first viewing the prescription or appropriate paperwork.
At the time, the then committee said the conditions of practice order was considered to be a reasonable punishment given the seriousness of the error, arguing that Hayworth had the ability to improve following additional training and supervision.
The tribunal found her guilty on all counts, citing the fact that her repeated errors caused harm to the patients and resulted in “adverse reactions and discomfort.”
Despite this, the committee originally said her actions were considered to be ‘‘at the lower end of the spectrum of impaired fitness to practise,” going on to say that Mrs Hayworth was “willing to respond positively to training” and did not show any intent or malice when the mistakes were made.
They also failed to detect any “general incompetence” in Mrs Hayworth’s work and recognised that her mistakes were genuinely made in error.
But by September of this year, the newly-formed panel found no evidence that an improvement had been made by Mrs Hayworth, resulting in them taking the decision to strike off the nurse, citing a “real risk of repetition”.
The new committee also said her actions ultimately “did not reflect the standards expected of a nurse” and “brought the reputation of the establishment in which she worked into disrepair”, stating: “What happened was unacceptable and must not happen again.”