Lucy Chapman, instructed by the Royal College of Nursing, was successful in securing findings of no charges proven for her client in fitness to practice proceedings brought by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
Lucy’s client, the registrant, was a care home manager who faced 10 charges of misconduct including dishonestly instructing a junior nurse to falsify patient documents after the death of a patient in order to mislead others, undermining the employer’s whistleblowing policy, racial abuse, and insulting and aggressive behaviour towards colleagues. The NMC was seeking a strike off.
Lucy mounted a positive defence of bad faith by the employer, submitting that the employer had scapegoated the registrant to cover for their own failings, which included a poor CQC report and the unexplained death of a patient. After a two-week hearing, which Lucy cross examined six witnesses from the referring employer, the panel found “issues with the reliability and fairness” of the employer’s investigation into the registrant’s conduct.
In the case of falsifying documents, Lucy submitted there was a lack of motive on behalf of the registrant, and that the witness nurse who committed the falsification was encouraged to blame the registrant by the employer to justify her own actions. The panel found that the nurse appeared prompted to change her account to accuse the registrant, and that the registrant was treated unfairly. Lucy further argued that the two witnesses who claimed to have been subject to racial abuse and bullying behaviour by the registrant had a personal dislike of the registrant and were emboldened by the employer’s pursuit of the registrant to make allegations against her.