LEIGHTON:SALINE RAP NURSE BANNED FOR 18 MONTHS

A nurse accused of tampering with saline drips at a hospital where police are probing the deaths of  patients was banned from working for 18 months today (Tues).

Rebecca Leighton, 27, faces charges relating to the sudden and unexplained deaths of four patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.

Greater Manchester Police are interviewing hundreds of witnesses amid claims saline was contaminated with insulin, causing fatal drops in patients’ blood sugar levels.

A panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, sitting in central London, today made an interim order suspending Leighton’s registration as a nurse for 18 months.

Panel chair John Unsworth said: ‘These are very serious allegations which strike at the heart of the principle that patients should be  able to trust nurses to safeguard their health and well-being and do nothing to endanger their safety.

‘If the alleged behaviour was repeated there would be a real risk to patients. The need to protect the public and the wider public interest outweighs the interests of the registrant in these matters.

Kristian Garsed, for the NMC, told the panel Leighton had been charged following her arrest on July 20.

‘At this stage, information is rather limited,’ he said.

‘Although the registrant has been charged, the investigation is not yet over.

‘But these are a very grave set of allegations which are directly related to her clinical practice.

‘It is alleged that she either deliberately or recklessly damaged medical products which have directly or indirectly led to the deaths of many patients.

‘This conduct undermines the very essence of her role as a registered nurse.

‘The people in a registered nurse’s care must be able to trust that nurse with their health and well-being.

‘Intentionally or recklessly damaging products and therefore endangering or even ending the lives of patients is fundamentally incompatible with that obligation.’

He added: ‘It may be said that her current status as a remand prisoner means that currently she poses little or no risk to patient safety.

‘However, that is not a certainty and is, in any event, beyond the control of this panel.

‘It is possible that she may be released from custody –  an application for bail can be made at any stage.

‘If she were to be released from custody and there were no restrictions on her practice as a nurse, given the nature of the charges, she would represent a real and very significant risk to the 
safety of patients.’

Mr Garsed told the panel the order was also necessary to maintain public confidence in the nursing profession and the NMC.

‘There is a real risk that if no order was made it would cause  significant damage to the profession, the NMC as a regulator and the regulatory process as a whole,’ he said.

‘This is a case where the allegations are about as serious as can be imagined.

‘There is already a high level of public interest and scrutiny and the public expectation is that the registrant should be suspended during the investigation.’

Leighton, who is currently on remand at Styal women’s prison in Cheshire, did not attend today’s hearing and was not represented.

She faces three counts of criminal damage with intent to endanger life, alternative counts of being reckless as to whether life was endangered and a single charge of theft of medicine.

The criminal damage charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The case centres upon the suspicious deaths last month of Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, Derek Weaver, 83, and 84-year-old Vera Pearson.

Police are no longer treating the death of a fifth man, 84-year-old George Keep, as suspicious.

Leighton appeared at Manchester Crown Court yesterday (Mon) via videolink for a preliminary hearing and is due to enter pleas on October 17.

A provisional trial date has been set for February 28 next year.

The NMC investigation will continue following the conclusion of the trial, which is expected to last around four weeks.
ends.