Liverpool nurse's unauthorised diagnoses 'risked lives'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-50894336

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A nurse who put patients at risk with examinations and diagnoses when she was not trained, qualified or authorised, has been struck off.

Deborah Cooper from Liverpool falsified the medical records at the Islington House GP surgery, a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing was told.

The Fitness to Practice hearing found her guilty of serious misconduct and said she put patients at "direct risk".

She was not at the hearing but has said she was "disillusioned" with nursing.

The disciplinary panel said Ms Cooper's conduct "had the potential to place a number of patients at a risk of serious harm".

'Unauthorised examinations'

It added her "repeated and premeditated dishonesty" placed patients "presenting with acute symptoms at direct risk of harm".

The hearing was told Ms Cooper's lies first came to light in February 2018 when doctors at the surgery in Kensington, Liverpool, discovered she was falsely recording patients as having undergone mental health reviews.

Three months later it emerged Ms Cooper declared a patient had a clear chest after an examination with a stethoscope, without authorisation, before a doctor later discovered the patient's chest was not clear.

An investigation also revealed she carried out unauthorised breast and vagina examinations and referred one patient to a gynaecologist without consulting any of the practice GPs.

'No longer working'

Ms Cooper regularly falsified patient records over a six month period claiming certain examinations and procedures, which were not reported to GPS, had taken place when they had not.

In one case she went beyond her remit by referring a patient for an ECG (electrocardiogram) at a local clinic instead of sending them to a cardiologist - the GPs were not consulted.

Ms Cooper emailed the hearing that she would abide by its decision.

She added: "I have become disillusioned with the nursing profession and will no longer be working as a registered nurse from the end of November 2019."