Nurse "placed patients at serious risk of harm" in Lancashire hospitals with raft of medicine errors

Nicola Grace Cornthwaite, who has been a registered nurse since October 31, 1989, has been given a 12 month conditions of practice order by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) following a hearing this month.

She is said to have “placed patients at serious risk of harm” and “brought the profession into disrepute” because of her actions, which include not administering critical epilepsy medication and giving drugs meant for one patient to the person in the next bed.

What happened?

Mrs Cornthwaite’s has admitted the following charges in full:

- On May 1 2019, whilst working at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust, Mrs Cornthwaite administered Gabapentin to Patient A when it was not prescribed. When the drug charts were checked, it was discovered that Mrs Cornthwaite had given Patient A medication that had been prescribed for Patient B who was in the next bed.

- On October 15, 2019, whilst working at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital, Mrs Cornthwaite failed to administer Tranaxemic acid and Terlipressin to Patient B who was suffering from acute bleeding. These two drugs were not stock items and although Mrs Cornthwaite recorded '5' on the drug chart, (which indicates drugs not available), on three separate occasions during the shift, she made no attempt to order the medication from the pharmacy or escalate it with a senior member of staff.

- On January 21, 2020, whilst working at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital, Mrs Cornthwaite administered fexofenadme, an antihistamine, to Patient F without signing for it in the drug chart. This resulted in Patient F receiving a double dose. There was no patient harm.

- On July 27, 2020, Mrs Cornthwaite failed to administer prescribed antibiotics to Patient C. There was no patient harm.

- On September 2, 2020, whilst working at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust, Mrs Cornthwaite failed to administer Lamotrigine, an anti-epileptic medication, to a patient who was admitted in an ‘epileptic state’. This medication cannot be missed especially as the patient was a known epileptic and they could have suffered further seizures. The prescription chart had 'critical medicine' next to the name of the drug on the prescription chart. Another nurse found the medication in the ward's medicine trolley and administered it.

A Director of Clinical Governance at Medacs Global states in her witness evidence that the patient “could have been at risk of death".

There was no patient harm.

What the NMC said

In a report, assessors from the NMC said: “Mrs Cornthwaite's failings are serious and relate to basic nursing skills. While there is no evidence of patient harm, Mrs Cornthwaite's medication administration and record keeping failings, and her failure to

escalate these incidents adequately, placed patients at serious risk of harm.”

They added: “She is an experienced nurse of over 30 years, and many of the concerns relate to basic requirements for safe practice. These incidents occurred over a period of 16 months during which time Mrs Cornthwaite provided reflections of the incidents and completed further relevant medication refresher training.

They judged that she had “brought the profession into disrepute and has breached fundamental tenets of the profession by failing to provide the appropriate level of care to patients.”

The sanction

Mrs Cornthwaite has been given a 12 month conditions of practice order, requiring her to carry out additional tasks during her work, including log taking, training and reporting to supervisors.

Due to training requirements she must also not not work or otherwise provide nursing services as the sole nurse on duty or through an agency or as a bank nurse.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals have been approached for comment.