Nurse Struck Off for Falsifying Prescriptions and Stealing Medication

A nurse has been struck off following a conviction for falsifying prescriptions and producing fake medical records in the previous year.

Last April, Juliet Ogochukwu Ezeh was convicted by magistrates after she created a patient’s false prescription between October 2022 and September 2023 to obtain medication for herself.

Having been referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) two years ago, Ezeh, 43, has now been told she cannot continue working in the profession following a conduct hearing last month. Documents released from the hearing revealed how during her time working in Liverpool, Ezeh undertook a home visit with an individual known only as patient B and falsified records to show she had dispensed codeine.

In actual fact, she kept the medicines for herself. The hearing uncovered how her conviction led to a suspended sentence from the court in April last year. A report issued by the NMC said after a home visit to patient B in October 2022, Ezeh falsely recorded she had prescribed 28 tablets for their use.

However, without any clinical justification, she took the codeine and kept them. Within patient B’s notes, Ezeh prepared a handwritten prescription for the medication. Six months later, Ezeh repeated this course of action following a telephone conversation with an individual referred to by the NMC as patient A.

She was referred by her employer to the NMC in October 2023. When the hearing was convened last month, Ezeh admitted all charges.

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The three person panel overseeing the case concluded her actions had been premeditated, given the efforts she had gone to in a bid to conceal the fact she had taken the codeine for herself.

When asked if she had ever committed such an act before, Ezeh admitted she had once falsified and collected a prescription for an inhaler.

The panel determined that this demonstrated a pattern of calculated dishonest behaviour by her in an attempt to cover her tracks.

Sophie Walmsley, from Royal College Nursing (RCN), on behalf of Ezeh, said her client had apologised for her actions and understood the impact of her actions on the public’s view of the nursing profession.

She submitted that Ezeh had also expressed remorse to your family and colleagues. According to the documents, in the panel’s judgement, this behaviour from an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in a position of authority was a “shocking departure” from the standards expected of a registered nurse and amounts to serious misconduct.

In deciding to strike Ezeh from the record, the panel considered that the actions were not a single event and were repeated, calculated behaviour over a significant period of time of nearly one year.