Ebola nurse to face panel for misconduct and deception

Ms Cullen told reporters after the end of the disciplinary hearing that it had been upsetting and stressful for Ms Cafferkey, who would now continue with her nursing career in Scotland.

Ms Cafferkey has been cleared of misconduct over her return to the United Kingdom with the virus.

But the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel today cleared her of three charges, ruling there was “no evidence” she had tried to mislead health authorities.

The Scottish medical worker, 40, became infected with Ebola during a six-week spell working in Sierra Leone towards the end of 2014.

On Tuesday a disciplinary panel heard allegations that Pauline Cafferkey, 40, allowed an incorrect temperature to be recorded during the screening process at Heathrow on her arrival from West Africa in late 2014.

Yet she asked the panel to find Ms Cafferkey’s fitness to practice impaired “to protect the public and protect the public interest”.

A nurse treated for Ebola at the Royal Free Hospital will face a misconduct panel over allegations she could have put the public at risk.

The NMC alleges that when Ms Cafferkey was having her temperature taken by a doctor she did not tell the medic she had recently taken paracetamol.

She spent nearly a month in isolation at the Royal Free at the beginning of 2015 after the virus was detected when she arrived back in the UK.

She remains accused of allowing an incorrect temperature to be recorded during the screening process at the airport and of leaving the screening area at Heathrow without reporting her true temperature.

FILE – This is a February 23, 20116 file photo ofof Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey being transported to militar aircraft at Glasgow Airport, in Scotland before being flown to London for treatment.

She was diagnosed with Ebola – with one of the highest viral loads ever recorded – and spent nearly a month being treated in an isolation unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital. She was admitted to hospital for a third time earlier this year.

Chairman Timothy Cole said that “compelling and clear medical evidence” about Ms Cafferkey’s state of mind at the time of her return had been central to the decision.

She has been hospitalized twice more with complications.

He added the fact she was unable to accept she was ill when she returned to Glasgow pointed to her “diminished reasoning” caused by the virus.

The doctor claimed that “registrant A stated at this point that she would record the temperature as 37.2C on Ms Cafferkey’s screening form and then they would “get out of there and sort it out”.

Hours later she was diagnosed with one of the most severe viral loads of Ebola ever recorded.