Nurse sacked & taken to court for stealing pain relief for a headache

[Poppedmytyreffs]

As above. What are your thoughts? Will try to post a link now

Co-codmol contains codeine which is designated a controlled drug. Controlled drugs are kept locked and only dispensed after being prescribed therefore matched against stock. To have taken co-codmoI would potentially have been noticed during one of the regular checks. I don't know how the nurse was caught but it seems unlikely that he/she would have been dismissed for a one off. There's likely far more to this than meets the eye.

She doesn’t appear to be on the NMC register so I don’t think she’s a registered nurse. It does seem like such an extreme punishment for something I’ve even seen matron do. There must be more to this as it sounds like a witch hunt.

Based on reading stories in newspapers that at least attempted a few words around the sexy pictures ( you can see how contrite she is) there were at least two thefts, and the hospital had a clear policy that you needed written permission to take drugs from stock for personal use. Come on, she knew that!

Nurses are bloody brilliant. Let's not confuse the majority with one thief who is exploiting her day in court for her own egrarious benefit. She's not slightly sorry for what she did.

Even back in the 90s eyebrows would have been raised at Co-codamol. Paracetamol, voltarol and antiemetics were occasionally dished out to stop people having to go home ill but no opioids or bentos etc.

Drugs were going missing, they set up a camera and she was caught. There must have been enough evidence to do this. Not just one pill a couple of times. She can spin whatever story she wants, the NHS can't print details of the crime.
I think she got what she deserved and she should have known better.

Unqualified staff generally don't have access to the drug cupboarcs/ trolley ime

Also I’m flabbergasted about the use of covert surveillance. I’ve never heard of this and as far as I knew this is never allowed. My ward had an issue with certain drugs going missing many moons ago and nothing even close to that happened.

This isn't taking 2 co-codamol for a headache.

It is taking enough medication that staff noticed they were consistently running short.

Enough that cameras were installed and then she was caught taking more, on more than one occasion.

Given co-codamol is highly tradeable and addictive, this is a serious incident which would have had to be reported to and managed by the police.

I agree: but sadly I do think the NHS/Trusts will point fingers and blame the lowest ranking staff member possible: I think there must be more to this story, either about the individual or the Trust

There’s much more to this than the headline ‘sacked for taking pain relief for headache’

otherwise she wouldn’t have been sacked

Am very aware of overly harsh NMC and GMC nonsense, but this isn’t one of those occasions

Oops slow typing my last response was to @Koifish

It doesn’t matter, but it’s a minority that can’t metabolise codeine.

And cocodamol definitely not appropriate for just a headache

Having cameras in drug rooms is increasingly common, they are generally not covert and the aim is to be able to investigate what happened during any drug errors.

When I was a Controlled Drug Accountable Officer places which handled a lot of controlled drugs were often putting them in.

Co-codamol isn't usually handled as a controlled drug but it must have been going missing in some quantity for anyone to notice.

It seems too much to me too

Definitely more to the story than the papers are suggesting. They mention in one article that a camera was set up due to large number of patient medication going missing. No Trust is going to sack a nurse for taking tablets for a one-off headache.

This happened on the mirror ward to the one I worked on. The pharmacist had noticed the stock and records didn't match and that patients' own meds weren't being logged properly, so a secret camera was installed over where the medicine trolleys live and outside the treatment room. One nurse got fired. She wasn't the only one taking meds though, she was just the one caught on camera or whatever she took was the most serious. There are a lot of sticky fingers in hospitals.

I was a nurse for 20 years and there were loads of self mediators in hospitals in those days..tramadol, cocodamol, dihydrocodeine. The addiction problem was quite bad. I guess they had to get tough on it.

This. You have to keep strict records of medications. If you didnt, it would open the door to people taking backhanders for opiates etc

Seems fair

This puts a different light on things. Interesting, could have been any number of people taking meds...

Lidocaine patches are popular too. All those bad backs.

If she’s not qualified she’s shouldn’t have access to the keys/code of any drug trolley/cupboard or cd cupboard. If she did get access via another qualified nurse she needs sacking too!

When I first qualified 40 years ago Temazepam was the choice of drug for certain nurses!

I wouldn't either. I find it incredibly strong, I had it when I had shingles and couldn't take it as it made me feel ill and really out of it. I think I'm a wimpy with pain killers so might be different for others.