NHS nurse who faked records at Julian Hospital is suspended

Joanne Blyth-Smith was working at Julian Hospital, a mental health facility in Norwich, when she was found to have falsely made records of observations that did not happen during her shift.

A misconduct panel heard that Mrs Blyth-Smith was tasked with completing hourly observations on 17 people at the Bowthorpe Road site - including one high-risk patient who required checks every 15 minutes.

However, after failing to complete this task, she instead made an inaccurate record suggesting she had.

After bosses reviewed CCTV to confirm she had not carried out the observations, a disciplinary hearing was held.

During this, Mrs Blyth-Smith confirmed she did not complete the observations - but said she was not aware she had been allocated the task.

The case was referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council by the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, which held a misconduct panel last month.

Following this hearing, Mrs Blyth-Smith was suspended from nursing for six months.

The panel heard that the nurse was expected to carry out the observations between 3pm and 4pm on May 8, 2022.

But when a colleague pointed out to her at 4pm the observations had not been done, she made the inaccurate recordings.

In an official report, the panel wrote: "Her dishonest actions compromised patient safety and have the potential to cause serious harm to patients in her care.

"Mrs Blyth-Smith entered inaccurate and misleading information into records ... and this was dishonest."

'Actively encouraged practice'

Elliot Harris died at Northgate Hospital in 2020 (Image: Harris Family)

The case is not the first time this issue has been reported within hospitals run by the mental health trust.

In April 2020, 48-year-old Eliot Harris died during an in-patient stay at Northgate Hospital in Great Yarmouth.

During an inquest into his death held two years later - in August 2022 - it emerged that a number of observations of Mr Harris were falsified.

Evidence was heard at the inquest that there was a "culture" at the hospital whereby records of check-us were either filled in retrospectively or even falsified.

Senior coroner Jacqueline Lake said during the inquest she had heard evidence that staff members were "encouraged and expected" to complete records - even when observations were missed.

Following the inquest, NSFT confirmed that three members of staff had been dismissed in connection with his death.

The inquest was held just months after the incident involving Mrs Blyth-Smith.

Formal investigation

Anthony Deery, chief nurse at NSFT, said: "Making sure that all our patients receive safer, kinder and better care is our number one priority.

"As such, we will always carry out a formal investigation when allegations such as this are made and where necessary, we will suspend the member of staff or remove them from clinical duties while this takes place.

"We regularly carry out both planned and randomised audits to make sure observations are completed in a timely way and, if necessary, can also check CCTV footage in in-patient areas for additional assurances.

"Any learning is regularly shared with staff across the trust."