A NURSE has been fired from her hospice job following claims she failed to tell bosses she had been suspended from the profession.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) suspended Adeline Sands on 2 November while allegations she “misappropriated” £100,000 from her former employer are investigated.
Mrs Sands part-owned and helped run Initial Healthcare Ltd, a nursing agency based in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire.
After the NMC began investigating, she quit and worked for H1 Healthcare, nursing at a Marie Curie hospice and Ayr Central Hospital.
But when H1 Healthcare was contacted by a journalist for comment about her 18-month suspension by the NMC, they claimed Mrs Sands had not told them and immediately fired her.
Nurses must to tell their employer if they are suspended by the NMC and it is against the law to work as a nurse while not on the register.
Aberdeen-based H1 said: “Mrs Sands under the NMC Code of Practice is duty bound to inform her employers of any changes within her conditions to practice.
Termination
“As she failed to disclose this information and also due to the conditions set by the NMC Hearing, a letter of employment termination was immediately sent out via registered post on November 13.
“Our policy is to check NMC registrations on a monthly basis in line with standard industry practice. Mrs Sands was interviewed by H1 Healthcare on August 8 2012 and references were received on September 7 and 18.
“We always check the NMC register before employing any nurse and NMC checks on Mrs Sands were carried out on October 1 and 31, 2012. No issues were raised on either of these dates.“
An investigating committee of the NMC met in Edinburgh earlier this month to consider the case and issued an interim order suspending Mrs Sands from working as a nurse for 18 months.
The NMC report, published on its website, said of Mrs Sands: “It is alleged that you resigned after it was discovered that, over a period of 10 months, you had misappropriated over £100,000 of company money.
“It is alleged that the monies that were removed from the agency were paid into the same account as your salary.”
The NMC said she admitted misappropriating money but said it was a far smaller amount than that claimed.
Initial Healthcare declined to comment.
