Nurse struck off for drugging patients to give herself an easy life

A nurse who sedated patients for quieter shifts then laughed aout it has been struck off.

Catherine Hudson, 24, was jailed in December 2023 for giving powerful drugs to two patients on the stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

She messaged a colleague saying ‘I sedated one of them to within an inch of her life lol. Bet she’s flat for a week haha xxx.’

Her patients were described by the judge who sentenced her as being ‘as vulnerable as anyone could be’.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council banned her from being a nurse after hearing that she had put her victims ‘at risk of significant harm’ and she had shown contempt for the people in her care.

Hudson’s actions came to light in November 2018 when a student nurse reported her for giving an unprescribed sleeping pill to an elderly patient.

One paralysed victim, Aileen Scott, 76, was given zopiclone – which is so powerful it is only used for a short time to help people with insomnia – to keep her ‘quiet and compliant.’

Her son described Hudson as ‘pure evil’ and said his mum’s treatment would ‘haunt’ her family for the rest of their lives.

During sentencing, the judge said to Hudson: ‘The patients were as vulnerable as anyone could be. They could not leave the stroke unit.

‘Some of them found it difficult to make themselves understood. These defendants exploited them for an easy shift, for amusement, to exercise a contemptuous power over them.’

The NMC panel found that she Hudson had deliberately treated patients badly, stole a cocktail drugs and tried to destroy evidence.

They also said she showed contempt and disregard towards those in her care and their families.

The panel concluded there was a high risk of her repeating her behaviours.

A hearing report said: ‘Mrs Hudson’s actions were significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse and in the panel’s judgement they were fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register.

‘The panel was of the view that a member of the public would find it morally reprehensible if a nurse were allowed to practise having been convicted of ill-treatment of patients, theft of drugs and perverting the course of justice.’

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