A NURSE has been struck off after failing to act when a patient needed resuscitation and administering paracetamol to someone who was allergic to it.

Doreen Ellam has been banned from the profession by the Nursing and Midwifery Council after a found that she had put patients at risk of ‘significant harm’ while employed as a band five staff nurse by Halton and Warrington Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Nine trust staff gave evidence at a week-long hearing in London, which found a total of 10 charges against Miss Ellam, who worked on Warrington Hospital's acute medical elderly ward, to be proved.

The NMC hearing heard that on December 9 2014, Miss Ellam failed to recognise a patient’s deteriorating condition and failed to act when they required resuscitation.

Miss Ellam was asked to check on the patient by a student nurse, but the acting ward sister found her colleague holding the patient’s dentures while they was struggling for breath and moving erratically.

The acting ward sister prompted Miss Ellam to take observation but instead began ‘faffing around’ and the patient stopped breathing – the ward manager was called and began CPR alongside the sister.

Miss Ellam was described by her colleague as appearing ‘frozen’.

Previously on May 25 2014, Miss Ellam had failed to handover the correct resuscitation status of a patient and failed to act upon their deteriorating condition.

The hearing heard that Miss Ellam was ‘under a duty’ to know that the patient had a do not resuscitate status that was ‘clearly identified’ on handover papers.

Her patient was described as in a ‘poorly condition’ and having a purple face – a staff nurse asked Miss Ellam whether the patient needed a doctor and she replied: “I think I might.”

Miss Ellam also told her colleague that the patient was to be resuscitated – she didn’t participate in a subsequent resuscitation attempt and instead went to get the patient’s notes and belatedly made her colleagues aware of the DNR status.

A day previously, Miss Ellam had discussed confidential information about a patient and their family in front of another patient.

She approached a staff nurse who was tending to a distressed patient and discussed that another patient’s family were not happy that their relative was due to be discharged.

Miss Ellam’s colleague told the NMC panel that these actions ‘demonstrated a lack of respect for the patient’s privacy’.

On the night of November 4 2014, Miss Ellam had taken a patient to the toilet in a wheelchair and upon returning her colleague noticed that the patient was unwell and breathless – she described that she could ‘clearly hear him gasping and Miss Ellam seemed oblivious’.

The staff nurse went to check on the patient some time later and said that Miss Ellam ‘appeared very flustered’ and had not completed necessary observations.

On an unknown date, Miss Ellam administered paracetamol to a patient who was allergic to it and on May 24, November 4 and December 4 2014 failed to complete medication rounds in a timely and safe manner.

Miss Ellam took up to four hours to complete rounds and made a ‘wide range of errors’, including suggesting disposing of medication by flushing it down the toilet, attempting to administer the wrong medication to a patient and failing to ensure a patient had taken their medication.

The NMC panel heard that Miss Ellam, who was not present or represented, did not have up to date training on administering medicines.

They found that Miss Ellam’s actions and behaviour ‘fell seriously short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse and were sufficiently serious to amount to misconduct’ The panel said: “The misconduct involved a considerable number of serious and wide-ranging failures sustained over a long period of time – Miss Ellam’s misconduct put patients at a risk of significant harm.

“There is no evidence of remediation, insight or remorse.”

Miss Ellam, who was described as ‘very polite, caring and compassionate’ to patients by the hospital’s clinical nurse specialist educator, was struck off having previously had her employment terminated by the hospital.

A spokesman for Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “When concerns were raised about Ms Ellam’s practice the trust carried out a full investigation and her contract with us was terminated.

“The trust fulfilled its professional duty in maintaining and ensuring that nurses deliver high standards of care so referred the case to the Nursing and Midwifery Council to protect the interests of patients."