Nurse struck off after taking drugs from A&E store
Getty ImagesA nurse found to have taken drugs out of a hospital's accident and emergency store for her own use 22 times has been struck off.
Helen McLaughlan took the medication out of a store at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Berkshire, over about six months, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found.
It said she took drugs, including painkillers ibuprofen and codeine, and recorded they were for patients, some of whom who were no longer being treated at the hospital.
A Frimley Health NHS Trust spokesperson said it will "always act" when staff are found to have fallen short of required standards.
The NMC said McLaughlan had been referred to the regulator in April 2021, weeks after a routine medication check found pregabalin, which is used to treat epilepsy and anxiety, had gone missing from the store. She resigned from the trust later that month.
It found she had taken drugs inappropriately between November 2020 and April 2021.
The trust's investigation found she claimed to have dispensed the medication to patients not in her care, not on the ward she was working or even in the hospital at the time.
When asked to explain her actions, the NMC said she was unable to, "other than suggesting that someone else had taken the medication under [her] log in" after she had failed to log out of the department's dispensing system.
The NMC panel found her conduct was at the "more serious end of the spectrum" and removed her from the nursing register.
"We expect all our nursing staff to adhere to high professional standards," the NHS trust's spokesperson said.
"We will always act when we have evidence that an individual has fallen short of these expected standards and, where appropriate, refer the case to the NMC."
