Philip Dayle has secured the acquittal of a nurse (X) who was charged with tasting methadone whilst on duty in a substance misuse role at a high security prison. The allegation was made by a colleague, who claimed that she saw X use her finger to swipe methadone that had spilled on a work surface, then place her finger in her mouth. This wrongdoing was supposedly committed while X – along with the said colleague – was administering methadone to prisoners as part of the prison’s substance misuse support programme.
X had been suspended from her job on account of this allegation. She later took up employment at a nursing home, while she fought this charge. The charge was brought by the Nursing and Midwifery Council ( NMC) – the regulator of the nursing profession. If the charge had been found proven, in all likelihood X would have been struck off as a nurse.
A three member panel of the NMC’s Competence and Conduct Committee heard this matter over three (3) days. They found the story advanced by X’s colleague constituting the charge, to be “improbable”, X’s denial was to be preferred.
Philip Dayle’s has a practice in professional discipline and his profile may be seen here.
