Suspended nurse hit with new order

Mildred Bennette was handed a Conditions of Practice order on January 8 at a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel review hearing over her conduct while working at The Priory Hospital, Dewsbury, in 2013.

The hearing was told that while working as a nurse at the mental health rehabilitation hospital, Ms Bennette did not give one patient their prescribed doses of clozapine, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia.

The panel also heard that just one month later, she incorrectly documented that another patient should stop receiving sodium valporate, meaning they missed prescribed doses of the drug, which is given to patients with epilepsy or bipolar disorder.

Ms Bennettee, a nurse of 10 years, currently works as a voluntary support worker at Woodfield Grange Care Home in Greetland, Halifax.

The NMC judgement said: “The panel considered that you have made considerable efforts to remedy your failings in so far you have been able to do so.”

But the panel said there remained a risk of repetition.

The NMC judgement said: “The panel therefore decided that a finding of current impairment is justified on the grounds of public protection.”

Ms Bennette was originally given a nine-month Conditions of Practice order by an NMC panel in November 2014.

After an extension, that order was reviewed again and she was given an Interim Suspension order by the NMC in November 2015 as part of a pending investigation into an allegation that she did not disclose her order to her employer in 2014.

Her most recent Conditions of Pracitce order will last for sixth months and means she is banned from administering medications unless directly supervised.