Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing

NMC panel strikes off nurse Claire Fitzpatrick over dishonest use of care home residents' money

A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has struck care home manager and nurse Claire Ann Fitzpatrick off the register, finding she dishonestly used vulnerable residents' money for her own benefit and stole from a colleague's home.

MedicWatch editorial · Published 19 May 2026 · Updated 10 July 2026

Erasure (struck off the register)

Added to MedicWatch: 10 July 2026Report a correction

What does “struck off the register” mean?

Being struck off (the regulator calls this "erasure") removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.

Concerning Claire Ann Fitzpatrick, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 08A0016S).

Decision date: 19 May 2026 · Hearing started 6 May 2026 and ended 19 May 2026

In plain English

The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that nurse Claire Ann Fitzpatrick, while a care home manager in Cumbria, dishonestly withdrew money from two vulnerable residents' accounts partly for her own benefit, stole money from a colleague's home, borrowed money from junior colleagues, and failed to keep proper care records or notify the Care Quality Commission of two residents' deaths. The panel ordered that she be struck off the register.

Charges

While working as Home Manager at a care home: (1) failed to ensure care records for residents were completed, contained required information, or kept up to date (2019-2021); (2) failed to investigate medication omissions in relation to Patient A; (3) failed to notify the CQC of two resident deaths; (4) failed to keep a SOVA record for a resident with a skin tear and bruising of unknown origin; (5-6) made cash withdrawals from Resident CM's Post Office account wholly or partly for her own benefit; (7-8) made cash withdrawals from the Home's Residents' Bank Account on behalf of Resident RL wholly or partly for her own benefit; (9-10) that conduct was dishonest and lacked integrity; (11-13) borrowed or sought to borrow money from two junior colleagues and failed to repay around £1,000; (14) failed to engage in the local investigation. While working elsewhere: (15) stole money from the home of Colleague C; (16) removed a laptop without authority; (17-18) that conduct was dishonest and lacked integrity.

Findings

The panel found proved charges 1(a), 1(c), 2, 3(a), 3(b), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9(a), 9(b), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 18; charges 1(b) and 16 were found not proved. It found the proved facts amounted to misconduct, including repeated, premeditated dishonesty, financial abuse of highly vulnerable residents and abuse of trust, and found fitness to practise impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds, with a real risk of repetition and no meaningful insight, remorse or remediation. Sanction: striking-off order. An interim suspension order of 18 months was imposed to cover the 28-day appeal period.

Mitigating factors

The panel took into account two mitigating features relating to Mrs Fitzpatrick's personal circumstances, the details of which were heard in private. It determined that they carried very little weight, noting that some of the misconduct pre-dated those circumstances.

Aggravating factors

No meaningful insight into the misconduct; serious, repeated, premeditated and long-standing dishonesty; abuse of a position of trust, power and authority in relation to residents and junior colleagues; financial exploitation of highly vulnerable residents; emotional and financial harm caused to residents; misconduct over a significant period of time; residents placed at risk of harm; failure to engage meaningfully with the NMC proceedings and non-attendance at the hearing without good reason.

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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