Nurse Struck Off For False Prescriptions, UK

Main Category: Medical Malpractice / Litigation
Also Included In: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 29 Aug 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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A district nurse, qualified to prescribe, was struck off the Nursing and Midwifery register for obtaining drugs with false patient prescriptions.

An independent panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) Conduct and Competence Committee heard that Borry Jatta, 40, from Didcot, Oxfordshire, wrote prescriptions for six different patients in his employers' Wallingford medical practice over a period of four months in 2006 and collected them from local pharmacies, knowing that the drugs he obtained on those prescriptions were not required by those patients.

He then sought to conceal what he had done by deleting the relevant records. His actions led to a conviction for theft at Didcot Magistrates Court in November 2007.

The panel concluded that his behaviour could have caused the patients harm, in that he was obtaining by deception drugs which had not been properly prescribed, which when questioned he appeared to know little about. He claimed he was obtaining the range of drugs - a selection of painkillers, anti-infection and anti-inflammatory medicines - for a relative in Gambia because they were not available there.

Lesley Conway, spokesperson for the NMC, commented:

"Jatta's actions in forging prescriptions were a serious departure from his NMC code of conduct as well as being against the law. The NMC Code states a nurse must be open and honest, act with integrity and uphold the reputation of the profession."

The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. To be eligible to work as a nurse or midwife in the UK, they must be registered with the NMC. There are currently more than 674,000 nurses and midwives on the register. The primary purpose of the NMC is to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses and midwives to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct.

Nursing & Midwifery Council