Hannah Elaine Forbes
Introduction
Hannah Elaine Forbes is a learning disabilities nurse who led a team at Mary Ann Evans Hospice in Warwickshire and who was suspended for six months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on 7 July 2026, after a Fitness to Practise Committee panel found she had bullied and demeaned colleagues and made an inappropriate remark about the care of a patient with HIV. She is not Elaine Forbes, the former Sausalito city manager whose case is documented elsewhere on this site. The panel found her fitness to practise impaired and added an eighteen-month interim suspension order to cover any appeal period .
Background Information
Forbes worked as a Team Lead at Mary Ann Evans Hospice between 2021 and 2023 — a Band 6 nursing role with supervisory responsibility, and one she held while new to leadership. The hospice’s local investigation preceded the NMC case. The hearing ran from 29 June to 7 July 2026, and Forbes did not attend it; the panel proceeded in her absence, taking account of material she had supplied during the earlier local investigation .
The charges covered her conduct toward colleagues and, in one charge, toward a patient’s care. They included failing to appropriately support and communicate with a colleague, behaving inappropriately towards colleagues and members of the public, conduct amounting to bullying, harassing or intimidating behaviour, stating “do not drink his blood” in response to questions about the care of a patient with HIV, discriminatory conduct, showing preferential treatment to colleagues, and creating a hostile working culture .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated (regulatory). The findings below were made by an NMC panel on the balance of probabilities — a civil standard, not a criminal conviction.
Eight of the eighteen charges were found proved: charges 1(b) through 1(e), 3(a), 3(e), 4 and 5. The remainder — including the charge of discriminatory conduct — were found not proved. On the proved charges the panel made specific findings about how Forbes treated the people she managed. She did not explain her role to a new colleague, telling her “I’m not your mentor, I’m your line manager” in an aggressive tone, and did not engage her in conversation or assist her with patient welfare. She mocked a colleague who approached her with a concern, and she described Senior Care Support Workers as “only SCSWs” in a manner the panel found demeaning. Taken together, it found, this conduct amounted to bullying .
The HIV remark was found proved in the form charged: that Forbes stated “do not drink his blood” in response to questions relating to the care of a patient with HIV. The panel treated the proved conduct as serious misconduct and found her fitness to practise currently impaired on both public-protection and public-interest grounds, citing limited insight and a risk of repetition. The discrimination charge itself failed — the panel was not satisfied that her conduct met that threshold .
On sanction, the committee imposed a six-month suspension order with a review, plus the eighteen-month interim order. The panel found visible restriction necessary but concluded erasure was not required on these facts .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The panel’s mitigating factors included Forbes’s engagement and openness during the local investigation, remorse and acceptance that her behaviour fell below the standards expected, additional work pressures, her newness to leadership in a Band 6 role with limited support after managerial attrition and turnover, two subsequent years of registered practice with no formal concerns raised — including a promotion back into a leadership role — and difficult personal circumstances. The aggravating factors were the abuse of a position of trust in a senior role, a pattern of misconduct over time, her failure to attend the hearing without good reason, limited insight, a failure to work collaboratively, and the risk of future harm .
No wider public controversy attaches to the case in the fetched record; the visible consequences are the regulatory ones .
Current Status
Forbes is a suspended nurse. The six-month suspension was imposed on 7 July 2026, with a review to follow and the eighteen-month interim order in place pending any appeal. The panel’s finding of limited insight sits against its recognition that she had worked two years without formal concerns and been promoted — the record a review panel inherits contains both .
Impact on Their Career/Life
A team lead now carries findings that she bullied colleagues, mocked a colleague’s concern, demeaned support workers, and said of a patient with HIV “do not drink his blood” — with the discrimination allegation, the most serious legal characterisation available, expressly not proved. The suspension removes her from practice for six months and places the bullying findings permanently on her record. Her return depends on a review panel’s assessment of the insight the first panel found lacking .