NMC insights
Why UK nurses and midwives are struck off
This analysis groups published NMC erasure determinations into broad reason categories using the regulator-described charges, findings, and summaries indexed by MedicWatch. The figures describe MedicWatch's indexed corpus of published regulator determinations, not all healthcare misconduct.
230
published erasure determinations analysed
223
matched at least one specific reason category
22 January 2026
earliest decision date in this view
21 August 2026
latest decision date in this view
Cite this: https://medicwatch.co.uk/insights/why-nurses-are-struck-off#dataset-summary · download the underlying data (CSV).
Interactive chart
Categorised reasons in published erasure decisions
Clinical care
134 of 230
58.3%
Records
91 of 230
39.6%
Workplace conduct
86 of 230
37.4%
Medicines and drugs
83 of 230
36.1%
Dishonesty
80 of 230
34.8%
Patient safety
72 of 230
31.3%
Health and substance
72 of 230
31.3%
Criminal conviction
51 of 230
22.2%
Consent and dignity
45 of 230
19.6%
Sexual misconduct
40 of 230
17.4%
Non-engagement
21 of 230
9.1%
Other
7 of 230
3%
Category table
| Category | Count | Share | What this includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical care and competence | 134 | 58.3% | Findings involving clinical care, treatment, diagnosis, competence, performance, or professional skill. |
| Records, paperwork, and administration | 91 | 39.6% | Findings involving record keeping, notes, paperwork, documentation, or administrative compliance. |
| Workplace conduct and colleagues | 86 | 37.4% | Findings involving colleagues, workplace behaviour, bullying, harassment, or employer-related conduct. |
| Medicines, prescribing, and drugs | 83 | 36.1% | Findings involving prescribing, medicines management, controlled drugs, medication errors, or drug misuse. |
| Dishonesty and false records | 80 | 34.8% | Findings involving dishonesty, fraud, forged documents, false statements, or misleading records. |
| Patient safety and safeguarding | 72 | 31.3% | Findings involving patient safety, safeguarding, vulnerable people, child protection, or risk of harm. |
| Health, alcohol, or substance concerns | 72 | 31.3% | Findings involving health concerns, alcohol, substance misuse, or health-related impairment. |
| Criminal conviction or caution | 51 | 22.2% | Findings where the published determination refers to a criminal conviction, caution, court sentence, or criminal offence. |
| Communication, consent, and dignity | 45 | 19.6% | Findings involving consent, communication, dignity, confidentiality, or patient information. |
| Sexual misconduct and boundaries | 40 | 17.4% | Regulator-described findings involving sexual misconduct, sexualised behaviour, or professional-boundary violations. |
| Non-engagement with the regulator | 21 | 9.1% | Findings involving failure to engage, non-compliance, breach of conditions, or failure to cooperate with the regulator. |
| Other or unclear | 7 | 3% | Determinations where the available summary text does not clearly match one of the other broad categories. |
Example source-backed determinations
Clinical care and competence
19 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
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.
17 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that Steven David Wenman, a registered nurse, sent suggestive messages to one colleague, made comments of a sexual nature to two others, and ignored a third colleague in conduct the panel found amounted to bullying. The panel found his fitness to practise impaired by misconduct, noting very limited insight and minimal remediation, and imposed a striking-off order together with an 18-month interim suspension order.
14 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNursing associate
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found nursing associate Anthony Nethercott's fitness to practise impaired by his criminal convictions. Bristol Crown Court convicted him on 23 October 2025 of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to watch an image of sexual activity, and attempting to cause a female aged 13 or over to engage in penetrative sexual activity. The panel struck him off the register and imposed an 18-month interim suspension order.
Records, paperwork, and administration
21 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that registered nurse Lorna Fell gave a patient double the prescribed dose of Oramorph, did not record the error or tell the patient, asked a colleague not to report it and asked a doctor to change the prescription to match. The panel also found she made incorrect controlled drug records on two later shifts. It found her conduct dishonest on three counts, found her fitness to practise impaired, and imposed a striking-off order with an 18-month interim suspension order.
14 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that registered nurse Julia Ann Nixon's fitness to practise remains impaired in two cases. Reviewing two 12-month suspension orders, the panel found she had not undertaken remediation, training or supervised practice and had not shown sufficient insight into failings in patient care and record-keeping. It replaced both suspension orders with striking-off orders, taking effect on 19 September and 27 November 2026.
13 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC's Investigating Committee found that Tawanda Lovejoy Chivima, a registered mental health nurse, did not declare four driving-related convictions from March 2020 when he revalidated online in September 2021. He admitted the charges. The panel decided his entry on the register was fraudulently procured and incorrectly made, and directed the Registrar to remove it. It made no interim order, finding no ongoing risk to the public.
Workplace conduct and colleagues
21 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that registered nurse Lorna Fell gave a patient double the prescribed dose of Oramorph, did not record the error or tell the patient, asked a colleague not to report it and asked a doctor to change the prescription to match. The panel also found she made incorrect controlled drug records on two later shifts. It found her conduct dishonest on three counts, found her fitness to practise impaired, and imposed a striking-off order with an 18-month interim suspension order.
19 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
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.
17 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that Steven David Wenman, a registered nurse, sent suggestive messages to one colleague, made comments of a sexual nature to two others, and ignored a third colleague in conduct the panel found amounted to bullying. The panel found his fitness to practise impaired by misconduct, noting very limited insight and minimal remediation, and imposed a striking-off order together with an 18-month interim suspension order.
Medicines, prescribing, and drugs
21 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that registered nurse Lorna Fell gave a patient double the prescribed dose of Oramorph, did not record the error or tell the patient, asked a colleague not to report it and asked a doctor to change the prescription to match. The panel also found she made incorrect controlled drug records on two later shifts. It found her conduct dishonest on three counts, found her fitness to practise impaired, and imposed a striking-off order with an 18-month interim suspension order.
13 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that Keira Burton, a registered nurse working at HMP Preston, was convicted in July 2024 of conspiring to smuggle prohibited articles into prison and of being concerned in the supply of cannabis and another Class B drug. She was jailed for 20 months. The panel found her fitness to practise impaired on public interest grounds and struck her off the register, with an 18-month interim suspension order covering the appeal period.
12 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that adult nurse Kim Tracy Edmans's fitness to practise was impaired by reason of her conviction. In May 2025 she pleaded guilty to permitting premises she occupied to be used for supplying psilocybin, a Class A drug, in an operation run by her son. She received a suspended prison sentence. The panel said she had not engaged with its proceedings and had shown no insight, and it made a striking-off order with an 18-month interim suspension.
Dishonesty and false records
21 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that registered nurse Lorna Fell gave a patient double the prescribed dose of Oramorph, did not record the error or tell the patient, asked a colleague not to report it and asked a doctor to change the prescription to match. The panel also found she made incorrect controlled drug records on two later shifts. It found her conduct dishonest on three counts, found her fitness to practise impaired, and imposed a striking-off order with an 18-month interim suspension order.
19 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
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.
13 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC's Investigating Committee found that Tawanda Lovejoy Chivima, a registered mental health nurse, did not declare four driving-related convictions from March 2020 when he revalidated online in September 2021. He admitted the charges. The panel decided his entry on the register was fraudulently procured and incorrectly made, and directed the Registrar to remove it. It made no interim order, finding no ongoing risk to the public.
Patient safety and safeguarding
21 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that registered nurse Lorna Fell gave a patient double the prescribed dose of Oramorph, did not record the error or tell the patient, asked a colleague not to report it and asked a doctor to change the prescription to match. The panel also found she made incorrect controlled drug records on two later shifts. It found her conduct dishonest on three counts, found her fitness to practise impaired, and imposed a striking-off order with an 18-month interim suspension order.
14 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNursing associate
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found nursing associate Anthony Nethercott's fitness to practise impaired by his criminal convictions. Bristol Crown Court convicted him on 23 October 2025 of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to watch an image of sexual activity, and attempting to cause a female aged 13 or over to engage in penetrative sexual activity. The panel struck him off the register and imposed an 18-month interim suspension order.
14 August 2026Nursing and Midwifery CouncilNurse
The NMC found that registered nurse Julia Ann Nixon's fitness to practise remains impaired in two cases. Reviewing two 12-month suspension orders, the panel found she had not undertaken remediation, training or supervised practice and had not shown sufficient insight into failings in patient care and record-keeping. It replaced both suspension orders with striking-off orders, taking effect on 19 September and 27 November 2026.
Methodology and limits
This page analyses published erasure and voluntary-erasure determinations in the MedicWatch indexed corpus. It does not claim to measure all misconduct in UK healthcare or every regulator decision ever made.
MedicWatch applies a fixed taxonomy to regulator-derived charges, findings, and plain-English summaries. A determination can match more than one category, so category percentages may add up to more than 100%. The denominator for each percentage on this page is 230 published determinations.
Categories describe broad themes in the regulator's published findings. They are not new allegations by MedicWatch. Follow the linked source determinations for the full wording and context.
For citation, describe this as “MedicWatch analysis of its indexed corpus of published UK healthcare regulator erasure determinations”. Do not describe it as a measure of all UK healthcare misconduct.