The High Court has struck off five registered nurses over offences that included assault of a patient, theft and drug abuse.
The court confirmed the decisions by An Bord Altranais to strike off the nurses.
Two nurses were struck off for stealing money from patients. Antonette V Estrella (nurse registration pin number 92342) took an ATM card and Pin number from a hospital patient in September 2010 and used them to withdraw €400.
Shortly after, she tried again to take out money at a second ATM.
Jacqueline M Flores (nurse registration pin number 97098) was found to have misappropriated money and medication from residents and fellow staff at a nursing home on various occasions between 2007 and 2009.
Alvin Ramos Gorriceta (nurse registration pin number 87726) also had his name removed from the register after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
This followed an assault on a patient in the hospital where he was employed as a nurse in March 2010.
The latest decisions published by An Bord Altranais – the regulatory body for the nursing profession – also show Mary Carol Gallagher (nurse registration pin number 81590) was also found guilty of professional misconduct and unfitness to engage in nursing “by reason of a physical or mental disability”.
The allegations proven against her included the taking of blank prescription forms on several occasions in 2009 and 2010, on which she forged a doctor’s signature. These prescriptions were then presented at five different pharmacies. Her name was removed from the register after it was also found that “you are so addicted to drugs so as to render you unfit to engage in the practice of nursing”.
Nicholas Dominic Power (nurse registration pin number 55008) was struck off after being convicted of sexual offences.
Also on the latest list of nurses whose names have been erased is Gráinne Conway, the former director of nursing at Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin, which was closed in 2005 following revelations about patients being mistreated.Following a fitness-to-practise inquiry Ms Conway was found guilty of professional misconduct on the basis that she failed to ensure adequate care was afforded to five residents at the home. The findings in her case were released last October.
