Northampton nurse struck off for trying to use morphine-like drug for period pain

It was also proven she was responsible for confidential patient paperwork being found in a flytipping site.

Miss Safia Noor did not attend her conduct and competence committee hearing, where the Nursing and Midwifery Council proved five charges against her.

These amounted to trying to dispense drugs for her own use, dishonestly trying to conceal her actions and causing a confidential patient data breach.

While working at Northampton General Hospital, Miss Noor, on a number of occasions between December 2013 and October 2014, took confidential patient documents home.

An investigation was launched when "patient identifiable information [was] found at a fly-tipping site near the home address of a staff nurse," the committee heard.

Miss Noor, in a disciplinary hearing in May 2015, said: "I used to take the handover [notes] home. I forgot when I was rushing. I put the handovers next to my bed. Because of the stress, I never think of the handover. My mum came in and cleaned up and put them in the bag. I put the rubbish outside my house."

Then, while this incident was being investigated, Miss Noor tried to dispense a morphine-type drug for her own use in November 2014.

A student nurse challenged Miss Noor when she approached a drugs trolley and drew 5ml of the drug Oramorph into a syringe.

Miss Noor told the student nurse not to tell another nurse on shift at the time. When this second student nurse heard this and asked what was happening, Miss Noor claimed she wanted to use the drug to relieve period pain.

The committee panel heard that Miss Noor denied this allegation and claimed it was a joke.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council proved all charges against Miss Noor. She was struck-off the nursing register and given an interim suspension order of 18 months.

The hearing report reads: "Without the engagement of Miss Noor in the Nursing and Midwifery Council process and the lack of insight, remorse and remediation, the panel has determined that in the circumstances of this case, the only sanction which is sufficient to meet the public interest is one of striking off."

One witness, the directorate manager of medicine at Northampton General Hospital at the time of the incidents, said in evidence: “I got the strong impression that the registrant intended to be a good nurse and she did not set out to do anything wrong or incorrect.

"It was a shame that, in relation to the data breach, she did not acknowledge her wrongdoing from the beginning. The lack of acknowledgement showed a lack of professionalism.”