Nurse at Northampton General Hospital steals morphine and overdoses before fleeing to Croatia

On July 12, 2018 nurse Matija Konjevic was found unconscious in his room at his nursing accommodation, tribunal papers have revealed, after he stole controlled drug medication for his personal use.

Resuscitation staff were then called to administer treatment to Konjevic after he went into cardiac arrest.

While they were inside his room, they saw there was drug paraphernalia stored in one of his drawers, including needles.

A 50ml container of morphine, labelled ‘Rowan Ward’ was also found closeby but only 25ml of morphine was present in the container.

The resuscitation officer at the trust had suspected the cause of Konjevic’s condition was an opiate overdose but could not confirm this.

The day before Konjevec was found unconscious, the ward sister on Rowan Ward had identified 50ml of morphine had gone missing from the ward stock.

Another nurse confirmed she had given Konjevic 'blue keys' to the controlled drugs cupboard on July 11.

Mr Konjevic left the trust, without resigning, and went to Croatia on July 22, 2018 after he was discharged from the hospital.

He was dismissed for gross misconduct on January 2, 2019 following a disciplinary hearing.

Tribunal papers say that in Konjevic’s defence he had no previous Nursing and Midwifery Council findings and made full admissions to the charges.

A spokeswoman for Northampton General Hospital said: “Due to the circumstances of the case the trust immediately referred the individual to the NMC.

“The individual left the country before any disciplinary process could be carried out.”

Konjevec was charged by the Nursing and Midwifery Council for stealing and dishonesty and was subsequently suspended from the profession for one year.