ROBINSON: NURSE STRUCK OFF FOR COVER UP AFTER PATIENT’S DEATH

A nurse has been struck off for changing hospital records to cover up that she failed to call a doctor for a critically-ill stroke patient until after she was dead.

Nayyar Robinson failed to take ‘any of the steps which she should have taken’ when the elderly woman’s condition deteriorated, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

She also wrote she had made six attempts to call the dying woman’s family, when in fact she only phoned after her death.

Robinson, a staff nurse at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, changed her notes to claim she had tried to call for a doctor at 11.30am and 12noon, before the woman’s death at 12.42pm.

The nurse had also measured the patient’s blood oxygen levels incorrectly by using a probe on her ear that was designed to be attached to a finger.

At the time, healthcare workers had asked Robinson for help because the stroke victim, identified only as Patient A, had dangerously low oxygen readings.

These were later changed in her records to look less serious.

Stephen Barker, the panel chairman, said: ‘Shortly after 9.50am, the registrant was aware that Patient A’s condition had deteriorated to such an extent that it raised serious cause for concern.

‘At that stage she should have contacted Patient A’s relatives and either a doctor or a senior nurse. She did not.

‘Sadly, the patient died at around lunchtime before the registrant had taken any of the steps which she should have taken.

‘She was immediately aware that her conduct was likely to be criticised, and, as a result, she embarked upon a deliberate and dishonest attempt to make fictitious entries in the patient’s notes.

‘These included stating that she had bleeped the doctor when she knew that she had not, recording numerous attempts to telephone the patient’s relatives when she had made no such attempts, and altering the clinical records to change the patient’s oxygen saturation levels.’

He said the order to strike Robinson’s name from the register was a ‘personal tragedy’ for the nurse, who has 25 years experience, it was needed to protect the public.

Clare Horman, a senior staff nurse at the hospital, had told the hearing said Patient A’s daughter and son-in-law were angry at being denied the chance to be there in her final hours.

She said: ‘Patient A’s family had arrived for a visit and were told that their relative had just passed away.

‘The family, after they’d been told the news, were very angry and distressed.’

Ms Horman was off that day, but received several phone calls from the nurse who wanted advice about Patient A.

She later heard from Rodel Geronimo, a staff nurse on the same ward, who phoned to complain about Robinson’s conduct.

A healthcare worker later said Robinson had told her to change medical records for another patient, identified only as Patient B..

Robinson admitted making four changes to Patient A’s medical records, using a finger probe on her ear and failing to inform doctors and her family of her deteriorating condition.

She was also found to have made a further two changes to Patient A’s notes, changed Patient B’s notes, failed to keep notes correctly and failed to record things she’d added retrospectively.

Her conduct was found to be dishonest by the panel.

Ends