Nurse struck off after stealing disabled patient's blue parking badge from hospital car park

Joe Debrah was also found to have inappropriately administered medication to a patient and failed to flush a cannula when administering an unknown substance

A nurse who stole a disabled patient’s parking badge from a hospital car park has been struck off.

Joe Debrah, 47, took the blue badge from Maidstone Hospital to park his car at another hospital in Kent days later in October 2015.

The agency nurse failed to mention that he faced ongoing criminal proceedings when he applied for a job with Interact Medical – and later received a 12-month conditional discharge for theft and fraud.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council also found he inappropriately administered medication to a patient at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust.

He was also found to have failed to flush a cannula before or after administering an unknown substance in January 2017.

A report on the professional standards hearing into Debrah’s case said: “The panel concluded that to say that this incident was not linked to your clinical practice would be incorrect as the theft took place in a hospital car park from a vulnerable person and was displayed in another hospital car park.

“It was in no doubt that this is a breach of the fundamental tenets of nursing and amounts to serious misconduct.”

Mr Debrah, who registered as a nurse in 2005, was struck off after a panel found his actions to have amounted to misconduct.

He claimed he believed the conviction was a spent one and that he thought it would have been picked up during DBS checks when he went for the job with Interact Medical.

Mr Debrah was convicted of theft and fraud by false representation at a magistrates’ court in September 2016 and was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £30 in compensation.

SWNS contributed to this report.