Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
NMC panel suspends nurse Pauline Lino after she attended shift under influence of alcohol
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has suspended nurse Pauline Lino for six months after a panel found she attended a care home night shift while under the influence of alcohol and unfit to carry out her duties safely.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 30 April 2026 · Updated 11 July 2026
Suspension (suspended from practice) — 6 months
Added to MedicWatch: 11 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 Pauline Lino, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 12G2145E).
Decision date: 30 April 2026 · Hearing started 27 April 2026 and ended 30 April 2026
In plain English
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that Pauline Lino attended a night shift at a care home on 26 March 2024 when she was unfit to carry out her duties safely because she was under the influence of alcohol. The panel found her fitness to practise impaired on public protection and public interest grounds and imposed a six-month suspension order with a review, plus an 18-month interim suspension order.
Charges
That, on 26 March 2024, she attended work when unfit to carry out her duties safely due to being under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. The charge related to a night shift at Asprey Court Care Home, which she attended as an agency nurse. The charge was found proved.
Findings
The panel found the conduct amounted to misconduct, concluding on the balance of probabilities that she was under the influence of alcohol to such an extent that she was unfit to carry out her duties safely. It found her insight insufficiently developed, a risk of repetition, and her fitness to practise impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds. It imposed a six-month suspension order with a review before expiry, and an 18-month interim suspension order to cover any appeal period.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Aggravating factors
Limited insight; conduct which recklessly put patients in her care at an unwarranted risk of harm.
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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