Northamptonshire mental health practitioner struck off nursing register after saying patient should be ‘put down’

Kathleen Alexandra Warmington was the subject of a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Fitness to Practise Committee Hearing in October, after she was accused of misconduct between August and November 2022. At the time, she was working as a community mental health practitioner for Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT). Mrs Warmington had 20 years of experience in the field.

In the absence of Mrs Warmington, who decided not to attend the hearing, the committee looked at the charges against the registered nurse, which included a series of inappropriate comments made to patients such as: “take her to the vets and get her put down”, “being miserable is a choice” and “you’re lucky you’ve been given any medication at all young lady as the GP was completely against it, you naughty girl”.

The committee also heard that Mrs Warmington said this about a service user: “if she were my daughter, I would have drowned her at birth.”

The report said: “Mrs Warmington was dealing with vulnerable service users who were receiving crisis mental health care, and consequently her unprofessional and disrespectful comments both to/about service users, together with her apparent lack of contact with one, put service users at unwarranted risk of harm.

“The panel considered that members of the public would be appalled if they heard the comments that Mrs Warmington had made about service users.”

The hearing concluded that Mrs Warmington would be the subject of a striking-off order, which means she will be struck off the NMC register. The panel also imposed an interim suspension order for a period of 18 months.

Mrs Warmington can appeal the decision.

A spokesman for NHFT said: “As a trust we expect our service users, patients and carers to be treated with compassion, dignity and respect at all times. These are behaviours we require of all our colleagues, including those new to the organisation.

“Concerns were raised during this individual’s probationary period at the trust (August - November 2022).

“They were subsequently dismissed from their probation period with the trust and a referral made to the NMC.”

Read the full NMC hearing report here.