Dawn Elaine Sandy
Introduction
Dawn Elaine Sandy is a nurse who was registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the statutory regulator for nurses in the United Kingdom, under registration number 75D0960E. In September 2026, an NMC panel sitting at a substantive hearing ordered her striking off — removal from the professional register — after finding that she dishonestly recorded a risk assessment, encouraged a colleague to give false explanations about competency documents, and failed to ensure appropriate training and safety measures.
The case combined dishonesty in record keeping with wider failures of clinical governance: failures to ensure and record staff training and assessments, and a failure to implement a patient-safety action plan. The panel concluded that the proved charges amounted to misconduct and to current impairment of her fitness to practise, and it directed that she be struck off the register.
Background Information
The allegations considered by the panel centred on events in January 2020. The charges concerned a false January 2020 risk-assessment record, encouraging a colleague to give false information about competency documents, failures to ensure and record staff training and assessments, failure to implement a patient-safety action plan, and dishonesty.
The substantive hearing ran from 1 September 2026 to 7 September 2026, with the decision dated 7 September 2026. The determination also records that a coroner had determined that a dialysis-line disconnection was not the cause of the patient’s death; the NMC decision does not establish causation for any death.
Sandy’s record up to that point was otherwise unblemished. The panel identified a long-standing career of 45 years with no previous Fitness to Practise history, a factor it treated as mitigating.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. This is not a criminal case: the findings were made on the balance of probabilities by an NMC regulatory panel and are not criminal convictions. Parts of the allegations were not proved, including the charges that she encouraged a colleague to say documents had been received, and the allegation that she tried to conceal a known failure to provide training.
The panel found that Sandy dishonestly recorded a risk assessment in January 2020. It further found that she dishonestly encouraged a colleague to give false explanations about competency documents. These dishonesty findings formed the core of the case against her.
Alongside the dishonesty findings, the panel found training and recording failures: failures to ensure and record staff training and assessments, and a failure to implement a patient-safety action plan. The panel found that concealing missing training records was proved. However, it did not find proved the charge that she tried to conceal a known failure to provide training. The charges alleging that she encouraged a colleague to say documents had been received were likewise not proved.
The panel concluded that all proved charges amounted to misconduct and that her fitness to practise is currently impaired. On that basis it directed her striking off from the NMC register.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The panel weighed aggravating factors against mitigation. It identified as aggravating the abuse of a position of trust; deliberate breaches of the Code which “recklessly put people receiving care at risk of suffering harm”; dishonesty; limited insight into her failings; and no evidence of remediation or retraining to address the concerns.
In mitigation, the panel cited her long-standing career of 45 years with no Fitness to Practise history, early admissions to some of the charges in the case, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite that mitigation, the panel’s conclusions on limited insight and the absence of remediation or retraining underpinned its finding of current impairment and its decision to impose the most serious available sanction.
Current Status
Dawn Elaine Sandy has been struck off the NMC register. Striking off removes a practitioner from the register of qualified nurses, meaning she may no longer work as a registered nurse in the United Kingdom. Without an appeal, the striking-off order takes effect 28 days after written service of the decision.
A separate 18-month interim suspension was imposed pending appeal. Her current registration status can be checked on the official NMC register.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The striking-off order ends a 45-year nursing career that had previously been free of any Fitness to Practise history. Because the panel found limited insight into her failings and no evidence of remediation or retraining to address the concerns, the determination records no basis for treating the fitness-to-practise concerns as resolved.
The panel also acknowledged the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as mitigation, while noting that some of the charges against her were early admitted and others were not proved, narrowing the findings on which the sanction ultimately rested.
Sources
- MedicWatch, “NMC strikes off Dawn Elaine Sandy over dishonest records and training failures,” 7 September 2026.source