Nurse struck off after claiming for shifts he did not work

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, The Nursing and Midwifery Council said it had to regard the misconduct as "extremely serious"

A senior nurse who fraudulently claimed for shifts that he did not work has been struck off.

Ruaidhri Cantillon worked as a matron at the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s intensive care unit in Reading in February 2023 when his line manager saw he put in a claim for nine previous shifts.

He admitted using a colleague’s log-in details to authorise the shifts, without their knowledge or permission, for the shifts he claimed to have worked between October 2022 and January 2023.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said Mr Cantillon’s reflections on the matter were “limited and not fully insightful”.

An NMC panel also found he increased the banding of pay for the shifts he had not worked.

Mr Cantillon disputed two of the nine shifts and maintained he was on the hospital site and had spent the majority of those shift on the ward.

But the NMC’s panel said there was “no physical evidence” he had been there and no colleagues could recall him being there.

It said patients were “inadvertently put at risk” as a result of his “fraudulent actions”.

Panel members said they had to regard such dishonesty as “extremely serious” and that his registration would be erased “to send… a clear message about the standard of behaviour required of a registered nurse”.

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