Nurse suspended after secret hospital cameras showed her stealing paracetamol

A nurse who was filmed stealing headache tablets from the hospital where she worked has been suspended from her job.

Francesca Morgan, 33, stole paracetamol tablets intended for patients from a medication room. She was convicted of theft by the Magistrates Court in 2022. Following an investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), she has now been suspended for six months.

Morgan, from Woolton, worked as a level 5 nurse at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside. According to a report by the NMC’s fitness to practice committee, hidden cameras were installed in the hospital’s medicine room in Birkenhead, Wirral, in June 2021 due to unrecorded medication losses.

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Footage from these cameras showed Morgan taking paracetamol and a laxative solution on two occasions. Morgan sent an email to NHS staff in February 2022 claiming they could only assume she had put paracetamol in her bag to give to a patient in a hurry and that she had not intentionally tried to steal any medication.

However, at a meeting on April 6, she denied taking the tablets while at work, but admitted doing so when shown CCTV evidence, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Regarding taking paracetamol, Morgan said it was “well known that you can take paracetamol for a headache”. In a letter to the NMC in March last year, she said she had taken the tablets with presumed consent because she was feeling unwell.

The nurse said that taking paracetamol was “common” among staff on the ward and so she assumed it was OK.

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In a statement, Wirral University Hospital Trust said that the taking of medication for personal use by staff was not permitted and was in breach of medicines guidelines.

When she appeared at Wirrall Magistrates Court in December 2022, Morgan was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £144 in costs and victim compensation. Prosecutor Yvonne Dobson said the nurse was not solely accused of being responsible for stealing all of the medication. She added: “We are not accusing her of the entire theft. These are two limited incidents.”

“She believed she had tacitly agreed to take the drug. Although she had no previous convictions, she has now lost her good character.”

In her defense, defense attorney Laura Flynn stated in court that Morgan had not only lost her job but also her career as a result of the thefts.

Although no patient was harmed, the panel found that the nurse’s actions in stealing medication had the potential to expose patients to an “unjustified risk of harm.”

It was said that Morgan had shown insight in a statement. She said: “I realise that taking medication from the ward is not acceptable as this could be seen as theft. I have spent many hours reflecting on the situation I have put myself in.”

However, this did not convince the officers. Given the nature of the offence and Morgan’s perceived “ongoing danger to the public”, they considered a six-month fine appropriate.