A nurse who stole drugs from an operating theatre at Ninewells Hospital has been suspended from the profession for a year.
Andrew Cavanagh (26) appeared at a fitness to practice hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in Edinburgh on Thursday.
He faced the hearing after admitting at Dundee Sheriff Court the charge of stealing six vials of medication, several syringes and associated equipment from the theatre suite on level six, Ninewells Hospital, on September 29 2009.
The court heard he was found slumped unconscious in his car by a woman leaving her home in Laird Street about 8.20am, Cavanagh having completed a night shift as a recovery nurse less than an hour earlier.
Solicitor Ian Vaughan had told the court that Cavanagh, of Westfield Place, Carnoustie, was a well-respected nurse who had worked hard to reach his position at Ninewells.
As well as holding down a stressful job, he was suffering stress in his private life as he had relationship difficulties that were pulling him in different directions.
The court heard the drugs were painkillers and sedatives.
Cavanagh at first told the police he had taken the drugs out of ”morbid curiosity” to see what effect they would have on him.
His home had been searched but no drugs or any indication of drug use had been found.
Prior to his court sentence in December 2009, Cavanagh’s line manager at NHS Tayside recommended that he should be dismissed for gross misconduct at a disciplinary hearing, and this week the health authority confirmed he was no longer an employee.
The allegation against him at Thursday’s disciplinary hearing stated that his fitness to practice was impaired by his criminal conviction.
The penalties he faced ranged from a caution, which would allow him to remain as a nurse but which would stay on his record for five years, up to removal from the register.
The disciplinary panel concluded that he should be served with a 12 months’ suspension order, a sanction which prevents him from working as a nurse in the state or private sector for a year.
He was also served with an interim suspension order for 18 months, but that sanction is activated only if he appeals against the NMC’s verdict.