Shropshire care home nurse struck off for pouring residents' pills down the sink
A nurse has been struck off for pouring painkillers down the drain rather than give them to elderly residents of a care home in Shropshire.
The drugs were meant to help residents aged between 86 and 96.
But rather than administer the drugs, Elizabeth Matthews, 48, simply disposed of them down the sink.
Now she has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
A nursing disciplinary hearing was told Matthews worked at Brookfield Nursing Home in Newport and there were concerns about her work. She was exposed by the manager who set up a trap by placing chicken wire to be fitted to the waste pipe to catch anything being washed down the sink.
Matthews, of Eastwood Drive, Donnington, Telford, was convicted of four counts of ill-treatment or neglect of a person who lacks capacity at Shrewsbury Crown Court in January. She was given an eight month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to perform 200 hours of unpaid work.
NMC panel chair Lesley White said: "The panel concludes that Mrs Matthews' conviction shows that she has not acted with integrity and such behaviour brings the profession into disrepute.
"Her deliberate failure to administer that medication, and instead dispose of it down the sink, amounted to a serious breach of trust.
"Despite Mrs Matthews' expression of regret, she did not mention the patients involved and focussed primarily on how these incidents have impacted upon her and blamed others, including the manager for the environment in which she was working."
When interviewed by police, she said she did it because she was stressed and afraid of getting into trouble for not administering all the drugs.
