Cleethorpes nurse 'made fake appointments with patients to finish work early'

A nurse was found to have prescribed controlled drugs to her relatives and booked fake appointments with patients and then edited their records to cover up her tracks.

Nina Groves, who previously worked at Clee Medical Centre (CMC) in Cleethorpes, was found to be impaired by "reason of misconduct" by a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) tribunal on April 12. She quit the GP practice after it launched an inquiry her behaviour which took place between 2015 and 2019.

Former colleagues alleged she acted dishonestly to "have more free time" and "finish work early". Mrs Groves was not present at the hearing and was not represented.

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It was alleged Mrs Groves manipulated the booking system at CMC and made unnecessary additional appointments for patients without their knowledge and falsified their records by stating they'd attended the appointments when they had not. It was also alleged she would regularly book appointments for family members and generate prescriptions for them.

The panel also heard that Mrs Groves regularly made prescriptions for patients who she had only spoken to over the phone and pressured colleagues to print repeat prescriptions on her behalf.

A witness, who worked at CMC, told the council that "duplicated bookings would often be the last appointment of the day which would enable Nina to finish work early when the patient did not arrive".

Recalling a specific occasion, they said: "One day I noticed that the system showed Nina had five patients waiting for her and I had a free slot, so I went to the waiting room to help Nina by seeing one of her patients for her. It is common for practitioners to assist each other in this way.

"Once I entered the waiting room I saw that there were not any patients waiting. I went back to my room and checked the system again and noticed that on the Appointment Ledger it showed that all the patients who had been waiting a few minutes earlier had been seen and finished by Nina which was not possible."

A letter from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), who previously represented Mrs Groves, said: "In order to effectively manage her own workload our member booked patient appointments when she had free slots in order to catch up with the work instigated by those patients she had seen earlier that she couldn’t finish off."

It said there was "no falsification of patients’ records" and Mrs Groves was "simply finishing off the work that had arisen as a result of the earlier consultations". However, the panel rejected the explanation.

Mrs Groves was also found to have prescribed medication for patients she had not seen in person. But in the patient records, she would list the appointments as home visits.

A witness and former colleague said: "I was attending to a patient and the patient told me she had spoken to a nurse over the phone who had told her how to treat her skin rash, but she had come into the clinic now as she was concerned the symptoms weren’t improving.

"I reviewed the patient’s records and saw that Nina was the nurse who had previously seen the patient and the notes written on the record by Nina stated the patient had attended the practice and had a face-to-face consultation. I queried this with the patient who confirmed she only spoke to Nina over the phone."

The panel also found that, on August 23. 2019, Mrs Groves had prescribed 28 tablets of Diazepam (commonly known by brand name Valium) to a patient without the necessary authorisation from a GP. Mrs Groves was also found to have prescribed inappropriately high quantities of Codeine to another patient who was a relative between 2015 and 2019.

In its conclusion, the panel said it found that "patients were put at risk of harm as a result of Mrs Groves’ misconduct and dishonesty". It decided to make a striking-off order.