Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
NMC panel suspends nurse Maureen Ugbah for 12 months over competence and English findings
A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has suspended registered nurse Maureen Ugbah for 12 months, finding her competence fell short across fundamental areas of nursing practice and that she did not have the knowledge of English needed to practise safely.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 22 July 2026 · Updated 23 July 2026
Suspension (suspended from practice) — 1 year
Added to MedicWatch: 23 July 2026Report a correction
What does “suspended from practice” mean?
A suspension is a fixed-term pause on the right to practise. The practitioner cannot work in the regulated profession during the suspension. At the end of the period the suspension may be extended, replaced with another sanction, or lifted on review.
Concerning Maureen Jindu Ugbah, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 22H0619E).
Decision date: 22 July 2026 · Hearing started 13 July 2026 and ended 22 July 2026
In plain English
The NMC found that Maureen Jindu Ugbah, a registered nurse, lacked competence across fundamental areas of nursing practice while working at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust in 2023, including patient assessment, medication administration, record keeping and escalation of concerns. The panel also found misconduct arising from her failure to cooperate with an NMC investigation, and that she lacked the knowledge of English needed to practise safely. It imposed a 12-month suspension order and an 18-month interim suspension order.
Charges
Charges 1 to 13 alleged that between 3 July 2023 and 20 September 2023, while employed as a Band 5 nurse on the Acute Assessment Unit at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust, Mrs Ugbah failed to demonstrate the standards of knowledge, skill and judgement required to practise without supervision. They included not inspecting patients' skin or conducting assessments; not escalating a patient's oxygen saturation of 92%; attempting to administer Furosemide IV, simple linctus instead of lactulose, and an incorrect dose of Sodium Valproate; inadequate knowledge of sepsis, Digoxin, Prednisolone, Bisoprolol, Lansoprazole, Metoclopramide, Frusemide, oxycodone formulations, airway obstruction and the Glasgow Coma Scale; inadequate patient handovers and documentation; and being unable to work unsupervised, manage more than two patients or administer medication unsupervised. Charge 14, heard in private, alleged misconduct. Charge 15 alleged that she did not have the necessary knowledge of English to practise safely and effectively.
Findings
The panel found charges 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5, 6bi, 7ai, 7aii, 7aiii, 7aiv, 8c, 9, 10a, 10b, 11a, 11b, 11c, 12, 13a, 13b, 13c, 14 and 15 proved, and charges 1a, 6a, 6bii, 6biii, 8a, 8b and 8d not proved. It determined that charges 1 to 13 established the statutory ground of lack of competence, stating the deficiencies were neither isolated nor attributable to a single episode of poor practice and persisted despite an extended supernumerary period, close supervision, mentoring, a Supported Improvement Programme and a Formal Capability Programme. Charge 14, heard in private, established misconduct arising from a sustained failure to cooperate with an NMC investigation. Charge 15 established a lack of the necessary knowledge of English. The panel concluded that Mrs Ugbah had not demonstrated meaningful insight or remediation and that a real risk of repetition remained, and found her fitness to practise currently impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
The panel took into account Mrs Ugbah's relative inexperience at the relevant time; the absence of dishonesty; the absence of deliberate patient harm; and some recognition of her own limitation.
Aggravating factors
The panel took into account repeated or persistent concerns rather than an isolated incident; concerns affecting fundamental aspects of nursing practice; actual or potential risk of harm to patients; lack of insight; lack of remediation; failure to attend hearings, or to engage in the Fitness to Practise (FtP) process, without good reason; continuing risk of repetition; and the extensive resources in terms of supervision required to date and the future resources that would be required to ensure that Mrs Ugbah is able to practise safely.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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