Derbyshire nurse who mixed up smear samples has 61 allegations upheld - but isn't suspended

61 individual allegations, spread across eight charges were found to be proven or admitted, covering a course of conduct between December 2017 and January 2020.

A panel found Mrs Demetriou was dishonest, breached patient confidentiality, and acted outside the scope of her training and competence.

The allegations found proven included labelling smear samples incorrectly, recording the incorrect type of vaccine administered to patients, mixing up patients when sending cervical smear samples, and disclosing confidential information to a patient’s mother.

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The NMC published a 123 page report detailing the four-day disciplinary hearing and concluded: “The panel was of the view that the charges cover a range of recording issues, which include failing to communicate with colleagues, prescribing failures as well as mislabelling samples. The panel determined that these issues may involve patient harm or put patients at risk of harm.

"The panel found that your actions did fall seriously short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse and amounted to misconduct.”

Mrs Demetriou first entered onto the NMC’s register in December 1990 and qualified as a Nurse Prescriber in June 2016.

The NMC first received a referral into her conduct on June 5, 2018 by the practise nurse manager at Chapel Street Medical Centre, in Spondon; on August 15 of that year she joined Oakhill Medical Practice, in Dronfield, before resigning on June 28, 2019. The practice manager made a referral to the NMC on July 11 and on October 1, 2018, Mrs Demetriou joined Ashfield House Surgery, in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, before resigning on January 27, 2020 after a third NMC referral was received on September 11, 2019.

Mrs Demetriou told the panel that her record keeping was ‘evidently lacking’. She said: “You will see, across my documentation, what is evidently lacking, which is my fault, are specifics that I did not write enough specifics. I would make blanket points or sentences that did not give enough information for the follow-on clinician, be it a doctor or a nurse. Again, after a lot of reflection -- a lot -- I sat a record-keeping course, a time management course and an assertiveness course…

"...I am holding my hand up high that my documentation was too broad. On reflection and hindsight I needed to add not just for this patient but for a lot of the other patients I needed to ask more specifics and document more specifics, but things were discussed.”

In choosing not to suspend, or strike off, Mrs Demetrious, the panel noted that she had already been subject to an interim suspension since the charges were first brought in 2020.

They accepted that Mrs Demetriou had shown remorse but said patients were ‘put at risk of harm as a result of your lack of competence and misconduct’.

The panel said they took into account the ‘relevant training’ that Mrs Demetriou had subsequently received but that there was ‘a risk of repetition’.

But they fell short of imposing a suspension and imposed an 18-month condition of practise order which will see Mrs Demetriou supervised at any time she is working – consisting of working, at all times, on the same shift but not always directly observed by, another registered nurse.

Mrs Demetriou has 28 days to appeal the sanction.