Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing

NMC panel strikes off nurse Belinda Ellams over hostility towards Muslims and weapons

A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has struck nurse Belinda Jayne Ellams from the register after finding she made discriminatory comments about Muslims to a colleague, brought weighted steel balls and sharpened scissors into a care home, and showed no insight.

MedicWatch editorial · Published 19 August 2026 · Updated 1 September 2026

Erasure (struck off the register)

Added to MedicWatch: 31 August 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 Belinda Jayne Ellams, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 98C0653E).

Decision date: 19 August 2026 · Hearing started 10 August 2026 and ended 19 August 2026

In plain English

The NMC found that registered nurse Belinda Jayne Ellams made comments about Muslims to a colleague, brought weighted steel balls and sharpened scissors into a care home, and posted an offensive image on Facebook. The panel found her conduct was motivated by hostility towards Muslims and had the effect of violating her colleague’s dignity. It found her fitness to practise impaired, noted no evidence of insight, and imposed a striking-off order with an 18-month interim suspension order.

Charges

The charges arose while Ms Ellams was working as a registered agency nurse at Millbrow Care Home. The panel found proved that before 4 August 2024 she used phrases including “mussys”, “mussy bashers” and “the Muslims are coming” in front of Colleague A; that between 29 July and 4 August 2024 she told Colleague A the Southport culprit was “a radicalised Muslim” and that the media were covering this up; that on 4 August 2024 she ranted about the protests, told Colleague A to lock the doors “in case a Muslim gets in”, had weighted steel balls and a large pair of scissors without clinical justification, showed how the balls could be swung to cause injury, and offered Colleague A sharpened nail scissors; that this conduct was motivated by hostility towards Muslims, was unwanted, related to religion and violated Colleague A’s dignity; that she posted an offensive image on Facebook, racially motivated and motivated by hostility towards Muslims; and that on 8 August 2024 she declared on lapsing her registration that she knew of no matter giving rise to a fitness to practise allegation, showing a lack of integrity. Charge 9, dishonesty, was not proved.

Findings

The panel found that Ms Ellams’ conduct amounted to misconduct and that her fitness to practise is currently impaired on public protection and public interest grounds. It determined that the public would be concerned if a nurse with racist and discriminatory views about Muslims, who carried weapons to work, breached the fundamental tenets of the profession and had shown no insight, were allowed to practise unrestricted. It added that members of the public would be hesitant or reluctant to engage with the profession if they knew there was a risk they would not be treated fairly based on their race and/or religion. At the sanction stage the panel rejected taking no action, a caution order, conditions of practice and suspension, concluding that Ms Ellams’ conduct was fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register and that public confidence would be seriously undermined by anything less than striking-off. It imposed a striking-off order together with an interim suspension order of 18 months to cover the 28-day appeal period. Ms Ellams was not present and unrepresented at the hearing.

Mitigating factors

The panel found one mitigating feature: it acknowledged Ms Ellams’ view regarding the events in her local area at the time (the Southport murders). Part of this passage is redacted as [PRIVATE] in the published determination.

Aggravating factors

The panel found the following to be aggravating features: abuse of a position of trust; conduct which deliberately or recklessly puts people receiving care at risk of suffering harm; deliberate breaches of the Code; a course of conduct over a period of time; failure to attend the hearing; no evidence of insight; premeditated behaviour by bringing in weapons, including adapted weapons; and failure to work collaboratively with colleagues, with regard to discriminatory views.

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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